A Novel Ionospheric TEC Mapping Function with Azimuth Parameters and Its Application to the Chinese Region

The ionospheric mapping function (MF) for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a mutual projection method for the slant total electron content (STEC) and vertical total electron content, is one of the significant factors affecting the performance of ionospheric models. The commonly used MF assumes isotropic TEC variations and takes into account only the satellite elevation angle, which may result in significant ionospheric projection errors, especially at low elevation angles. Based on the single-layer model, we propose an additional azimuth parameter mapping function (APMF). The APMF was estimated and evaluated by the NeQuick model during the periods of January 2014 and January 2022 from the aspect of simulation and measured STEC during the periods of 2014 and 2022 from the aspect of actual measurements over China, respectively. Compared to the modified single-layer model mapping function (MSLM-MF), the experimental results indicate that (1) The APMF can significantly reduce the ionospheric projection error, and the fluctuation in errors with different azimuth angles is small. (2) According to the evaluation based on the NeQuick simulation during the TEC peak time, when the ionosphere is quite active, the upper and lower quartiles of the absolute projection error boxplot of the APMF relative to the MSLM-MF in January 2014 are reduced by 56.1% and 60.0%, respectively, and in January 2022, they are reduced by 67.7% and 65.2%, respectively. Similarly, the upper whiskers in the boxplot are reduced by 54.7% and 67.5% in January 2014 and January 2022, respectively; the APMF performance in terms of the root mean square error (RMSE) is improved by 47.0% in January 2014 and 58.3% in January 2022. (3) According to the evaluation based on the measured STEC from GNSS raw data during the TEC peak time, the upper and lower quartiles of the absolute mapping error boxplot of the APMF relative to the MSLM-MF in 2014 are reduced by 48.9% and 46.9%, respectively, while in 2022, they are reduced by 48.3% and 41.2%, respectively. The upper whiskers in the boxplot are reduced by 41.8% and 35.2% in 2014 and 2022, respectively; the APMF performance in terms of RMSE is improved by 44.6% in 2014 and 39.2% in 2022.