GROUND AND SPACE BASED GNSS IONOSPHERE MONITORING DATA IN ESPAS

Radio signals transmitted by modern communication, nav- igation and Earth observation systems are influenced during propagation through the ionosphere. The ionosphere is an ionoized layer ranging from about 50 km till 1000 km around the earth and is mainly generated by the solar irradiance. The strong dependence on geographical, diurnal, seasonal, solar cycle and space weather effects lead to strong dynamical ionospheric variations and causes problems for reliable modelling and related applications. During the past decades a growing number of observations are available with the potential to significanly improve monitoring and modelling of the ionosphere. Especially ground- and space-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data provide a significant contribution for our understanding of the ionosphere, but also for improving operations and performance of telecommunication and navigation systems. GNSS based ionospheric products provided via ESPAS help to understand the ionosphere and its interaction with extreme space weather conditions