A Laboratory Overhead: Physics Experiments in Planet’s Environment Can Assist Enhance GPS Efficiency
The Earth’s atmosphere has been utilized as a ‘laboratory’ to perform a physics experiment in a research partnership involving the University of Strathclyde, which can help boost the efficiency of GPS.
The research study displays a new method of remotely monitoring the plasma in the ionosphere as well as controlling wave modes in a manner that might help GPS perform better calculations when faced with extreme space weather.
The researchers carried out a controlled radar wave experiment by infusing radio waves into the ionosphere at slightly varying frequencies.
Afterward, the returned signal was recorded and examined. The scientists discovered that plasma waves were excited in the ionosphere, as non-linear waves were combined, causing a broad spectrum of non-linear frequencies in the returned signal.
Plasma in the ionosphere plays a significant part in reflecting and changing radio waves utilized for communication and radio navigation systems such as GPS. However, this accuracy can be affected by ‘space weather’ events such as solar storms.
The experiment was performed at the EISCAT facility near Tromsø, Norway, and the research study was released in the journal Nature Communications.
Dr. Bengt Eliasson, a Reader in Strathclyde’s Department of Physics, who was a partner in the study, said: “The Ionosphere belongs to Earth’s upper atmosphere, in between 80 and approximately 1000 kilometers, where extreme ultraviolet as well as solar x-ray radiation ionizes atoms and also particles, creating a layer of plasma.
” Various other phenomena, such as energetic charged particles and cosmic rays, likewise have an ionizing impact and can add to the ionospheric plasma density.
” The finding of the Planet’s ionosphere came from early radio wave observations over a century ago, and the acknowledgment that just a reflecting layer composed of electrons and ions could justify the observations. Early research sought to explain the different layers in the ionosphere and their irregularity with factors such as local time, latitude, and season.
” Currently, the emphasis of ionospheric research has shifted toward comprehending the dynamics and plasma physics of ionospheric phenomena, specifically because of disruptions driven by the sun, referred to as space weather events. These space weather events augment the overall amount of ionospheric electrons; GPS systems can not correctly model this dynamic improvement, and errors happen in position calculations.
” The active control of the wave modes excited in the ionosphere, as described in our short article, has the possibility of supplying new and enhanced diagnostics of temperature, density, electromagnetic field as well as ion composition, with the capacity of boosting GPS position calculations during times of disturbance.”
Likewise, the research involved academics from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the University of St Andrews, the EISCAT Association in Norway, and the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
EISCAT is an international association supported by research study organizations in China (CRIRP), Finland (SA), Japan (NIPR and ISEE), Norway (NFR), Sweden (VR), as well as the United Kingdom (UKRI).
Read the original article on Sciencedaily.com.
