A Study of GPS Perfomance in Central Europe during Severe Space Weather Conditions in December 2006

Space weather and ionospheric disturbances cause significant degradation of GNSS perfomance , thus being identified as a major source of GNSS vulnerability, Due to complex underlying processes , the space weather and ionospheric effects on GNSS perfomance are not well understood and properly described , causing difficulties in forecasting the GNSS disruptions and development of correction models of space weather and ionospheric effects on GNSS perfomance.Considering the spatial variability of ionospheric effects , local disturbances are frequently left uncorrected due to global nature of common GNSS correction models , thus additionally deterriorating GNSS perfomance and causing GNSS systems to be even more vulnerable.In consideration of the effects of GNSS vulnerabilities caused by space weather disturbances , it is important to identify the level of vulnerability to which a common GNSS user is exposed.Here the results of the case study of GPS perfomance during December 2006 space weather event in Central Europe are presented.This study confirmed correlation between space weather dynamics na d GNSS perfomance degradation.Furthermore , closer examination of local GNSS perfomance revealed good correlation with global parameters of space weather activity.The research will continue on spatial correlation of levels of GNSS disruption for various part os Europe.