Satellite communication system noise immunity and ionospheric scintillation intensity evaluation based on the results of total electronic content measurements

Authors: Chipiga A. F., Pashintsev V. P., Peskov M. V.

Annotation: Based on the results of total ionosphere electronic content variations measurements that correspond to small-scale fluctuations, the values for scintillation index and for error probability during the reception of the informational symbols on the frequencies L1 and L2 of the GPS system have been obtained. It has been shown that with the average scintillation index values S4-1, the error probability value Perr does not exceed 10–8. On an average, doubling of the scintillation index value S4 leads to an increase in the error probability value Perr by three orders and exceeds 10–6, which confirms a significant impact of small-scale ionospheric fluctuations on the satellite communication system noise immunity.

Keywords: satellite communication system, ionospheric scintillation, noise immunity, error probability, scintillation index, small-scale ionospheric fluctuations