ISACCO PROJECT
(Ionospheric Scintillations Arctic
Campaign Coordinated Observations)
ISACCO is a new project by the Upper
Atmosphere Physics Dept. of INGV being about to start within the end of 2003.
The aim of ISACCO is to perform a
scintillation
measurements campaign by a
GISTM (GPS Ionospheric Scintillation and TEC Monitor) at Ny-Ålesun
(Svalbard, Norway; geographic coordinates 78.9°
N, 11.9°
E). The GISTM
System consists of a NovAtel O
EM4
dual-frequency
receiver with special firmware, comprises the major component of a GPS signal
monitor, specifically configured to measure amplitude and phase scintillation
from the L1 frequency GPS signals, and ionospheric TEC from the L1 and L2
frequency
GPS
signals.
In the frame of Space Weather one of the objective is the
forecasting of the severe amplitude
fading and strong phase scintillation that affect the reliability of GPS navigational
systems and satellite communications. To achieve this goal it’s important to constitute a scintillation databank with a good spatial/temporal coverage useful
for developing new scintillation models as well as to test the existent ones for further improvements. In this sense, as the
scarceness of polar observations, the ISACCO project could offer a good opportunity to the
users/scientific community.