Pratham satellite: Faraday rotation based TEC measurement

Abstract

Pratham, the student satellite of Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is a landmark project undertaken by the students of the institute in collaboration with ISRO. The project is in its environment testing phase now. Total electron content (TEC) measurement was chosen as the payload for the satellite keeping in mind the current scientific atmosphere in India with the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) and GPS-Aided Geo-Aumented Navigation (GAGAN) system in the process of development. This paper describes the use of Faraday rotation method for TEC measurements. The key features of the method, n-pi ambiguity resolution, possible sources of error and simulations carried out to get the initial estimates of the TEC values are also discussed. The on-board and on-ground hardware implementation are briefly explained.<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal; mso-no-proof:yes" lang="EN-US">

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