Study of GPS scintillation during solar maximum at Malaysia

The global positioning system (GPS) is one of the most important and useful technology that has been developed for information and communication technology. The propagated wireless signals along GPS link are affected by the ionospheric electron density irregularities, so the GPS signals may experience amplitude and phase fluctuations. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) ionospheric scintillation and total electron content (TEC) monitor (GISTM) receiver has been installed at UTeM, Malaysia (2.3139N, 102.3183E) for the purpose of monitoring ionospheric scintillation during solar maximum cycle 2013/2014 for six months October 2013 – March 2014. In this paper, the GPS ionospheric scintillations are concerned for the dual frequency L1 (fL1 = 1.57542 GHz), and L2C (fL2= 1.2276 GHz). The ionospheric amplitude/phase scintillation of GPS satellites is reported. Finally, a new algorithm is suggested to enhance the GPS positioning system based on the availability of GPS and precise point positioning (PPP) approach.