The spatial resolution (geogr. latiude x geogr. longitude) of the IMPC TEC maps is 2° x 2° for European maps and 2.5° x 5° for global maps.
The IMPC TEC maps are provided with an update rate of 15 minutes. Actually, is generating these TEC maps with a temporal resolution of 5 minutes. The 5 minutes TEC date is available on request.
The latency of the IMPC TEC maps is below 5 minutes.
One TEC map file (which contains one map) is in ASCII format and has a size of approximately 70kB.
Data are provided in ASCII-Files (one Headerline + data as Matrix) and additionally as png images. New data products will be provided in JSON format.
You can get latest data via the "Products & Archives" section on IMPC portal (download is possible after your registration). Access to historical data and longer periods has to be requested via impc-uhd@dlr.de and will be delivered via ftp for scientific purposes only.
IMPC uses GNSS measurements from various reference networks in Europe such as the International GNSS Service (IGS) and the European Reference Frame (EUREF) distributed by the Federal Agency of Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) or the Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA). The global TEC maps are mainly created by using data provided by the IGS Real-Time Pilot Project (IGS-RTPP). To generate TEC maps of vertical TEC, the slant measurements have to be transformed to the vertical. In a first approximation the ionospheric range error in GNSS is proportional to TEC.
These TEC maps are used to derive latitudinal and zonal gradients, rate of change of TEC (5 min increments), 27 days medians, hourly forecasts of TEC, and corresponding error estimates (soon also available via IMPC). IMPC provides TEC-maps describing the state of the ionosphere with a latency of not more than 5 minutes for Europe and global with an update rate of 15 minutes (up to 5 minutes on request). The spatial resolution (latitude x longitude) is 2 °x 2° for Europe and 2.5° x 5° for global maps.
The TEC map errors are shown in the TEC-Error maps, which are provided along with the NRT TEC maps for Europe and the Globe. The given errors are related to the uncertainty of the in real-time derived TEC values from GNSS measurements and the error propagation based on the modelling and assimilation processes. The error/uncertainty is low in regions where a high density of real time measurements is available and higher in regions without measurements, where the TEC values are calculated via the TEC-model only (e.g. over oceans and in mountain regions). “Real” deviations from the reality/nature can only be obtained/estimated by comparison with other scientific measurements of the electron content of the Ionosphere (e.g. measurements with the research satellite Topex/Poseidon or Jason, Ionosonde data or with the incoherent scatter radar EISCAT).
