Total electron content (TEC) Measurements Made by Earth Observation Satellites

Total Electron Content (Tec) Measurement Instruments

Measurements > Gravity and Magnetic Fields > Gravity, Magnetic and Geodynamic measurements > Total electron content (TEC)

Measurement Definition: Number of electrons in between two points. Observed under more viewing angles so as to generate profiles by tomography - Physical unit: [ electrons/m2 ]; practical unit: TECU = 1016 electrons/m2 - Accuracy unit: [ % ].

Instrument	Status/ Accuracy	Instrument Description	Measurement Technology	Timeline
CER	Operational	Radio transmission from e-POP to ground for radio propagation and ionospheric scintillation measurements.	n/a
m-NLP	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
RF Beacon	Operational	Transmitter that enables ground-based measurement of ionospheric scintillation and ionospheric total electron content (TEC). Critical to understanding the impacts of space weather on satellite communication systems and GPS.	n/a
SSULI	Operational	Measures vertical profiles of the natural airglow radiation from atoms, molecules and ions in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere.	n/a
SWS/SEM/HEPD	Operational	Energetic particle spectrometer: Spectrometer for electrons (0.25-2.0 MeV), protons (6.4-38 MeV) and alpha-particles (15-60 MeV)	n/a
SWS/SEM/IMS	Operational	To measure ionospheric electron temperature and density, and platform charge and dose. Specially arranged Langmuir Probe for electron temperature (0-1 eV) and density in the 10- 10^6 e/cm3 range	n/a
TGRS	Operational	TGRS is the radio occultation receiver, which will receive signals from GPS, Galileo, and Glonass.	GNSS radio-occultation receiver