Comparison of ionospheric tec obtained from Faraday rotation of geostationary satellite signals and from GPS data

Abstract

In this paper we compare the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) obtained from Faraday rotation observations carried out at Neustrelitz (Germany), and the total electron content predicted for the same subionospheric points using Global Positioning System data gathered at Wettzell (Germany). Three different periods with data have been compared. In general, the same features for the TEC are reproduced by both results. For two of the compared periods there is a bias between both results, possibly due to the unknown initial polarization, the unresolved ambiguities in the Faraday-derived TEC or to plasmaspheric contributions. Another source of discrepancies between both results are deficiencies in the way of predicting the TEC at Neustrelitz using data from Wettzell.