Statistical Comparison of Various Interpolation Algorithms for Grid-Based Single Shell Ionospheric Model Over Indian Region

Future Satellite Based Navigation Systems based on GPS, like US Wide Area Augmentation Sysytem (WAAS), are of global interest to the scientific community. Precise estimation of ionospheric delay is most crucial for successful implementation of the systems. Due to the complex ionospheric structure and large variation of Total Electron Content (TEC) in low latitudes, it is necessary to compare and validate the efficiency of the existing algorithms in this region. In this study, performances of the various interpolation algorithms for TEC calculation at ionospheric grid point (IGP) and user position for grid-based Single Shell Model have been tested for 72 test days of 2005. Based on the results obtained from this analysis, it has been found that, for the Indian region, it would be more suitable to use Ordinary Kriging in place of Planar Fit to estimate delay at an IGP (as used by US WAAS). It has also been found that Ordinary Kriging performs better than the Bilinear Interpolation technique at the user end.