A comparative study of ionospheric irregularity drift velocity derived from a GNSS receiver array and Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar measurements during high-latitude ionospheric scintillation

The conventional ionospheric scintillation-based, spaced-receiver technique uses Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signal intensity measurements. It is not suitable, however, for high-latitude regions where phase scintillations occur much more often than amplitude scintillations. This paper demonstrates that GNSS signal carrier phase scintillations observed from a spaced-receiver array can be used to infer horizontal ionospheric drift velocities via time domain correlation. Drift velocities measured by the colocated Poker Flat incoherent scatter radar are cross compared against the estimated results from the GNSS receiver array. A comparative study is conducted based on two case studies on 20 and 31 December 2015, both accompanied by intense geomagnetic storms. Overall, the comparison results show statistical agreement between the GNSS receiver array estimation and incoherent scatter radar measurements.