Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Ionosphere Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) Final Product from NASA CDDIS

This derived product set consists of Global Navigation Satellite System Final Ionosphere Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) product (daily files) from the NASA Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS). The VTEC product files also include Delay Code Bias (DCB) values for GNSS satellites and ground receivers derived during the analysis. GNSS provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning with global coverage. GNSS data sets from ground receivers at the CDDIS consist primarily of the data from the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS). Since 2011, the CDDIS GNSS archive includes data from other GNSS (Europe’s Galileo, China’s Beidou, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System/QZSS, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System/IRNSS, and worldwide Satellite Based Augmentation Systems/SBASs), which are similar to the U.S. GPS in terms of the satellite constellation, orbits, and signal structure. GNSS observations from a global network can be utilized for atmospheric measurements. Analysis Centers (ACs) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) retrieve GNSS data on regular schedules to produce independently computed VTEC maps. The IGS Ionosphere Analysis Center Coordinator (ACC) uses these individual AC solutions to generate the official IGS VTEC maps. The final VTEC maps are computed with a resolution of 2 hours in UT, 5 degrees in longitude and 2.5 degrees in latitude; they have an availability with a latency of 11 days.