| CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS
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Measurements > Gravity and Magnetic Fields >
Gravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements >
Electron density profile
  | Measurement Definition*: Vertical profile of the electron density in the ionosphere and plasmasphere - Physical unit: [ electrons/m3] - Accuracy unit: [ % ]. |
| Instrument | Status/
Accuracy | Instrument Description | Measurement Technology | Timeline |
CER
Coherent Electromagnetic Radio Tomography | Operational
| Radio transmission from e-POP to ground for radio propagation and ionospheric scintillation measurements. | n/a |  |
GAP
GPS receiver-based Attitude, Position, and profiling experiment (GAP) | Operational
| Used for spacecraft position and attitude determination and for ionospheric radio occultation profiling measurements in which the relative phase delay of the measured L1 and L2 signals (at frequencies of 1.57542 GHz and 1.2276 GHz, respectively) from different satellites of the GPS constellation will be used to determine the electron density profile of the ionosphere using tomographic techniques. The GAP is turned on an average of 10% of the time, following a schedule devised by the science team. | GNSS radio-occultation receiver | |
m-NLP
multi-Needle Langmuir Probe | Operational
| m-NLP measures the plasma around the Earth at a higher resolution than other Langmuir probe instruments that have been flown in space. | n/a | |
SES
Space Environment Suite, improved SEM | Operational
| Measures space environment parameters to support space craft operations. | n/a | |
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* Description adapted from WMO.
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