Průhonice Ionospheric Station

The ionospheric measurements at the Observatory Průhonice (geographic coordinates 49°59"N, 14°33") are carried out by the Digisonde DPS-4D (produce by Digisonde International, Lowell, MA, USA). Ionospheric sounding at Průhonice has been operated since 1957. Until 1984 the measurement was realized by the Soviet (Russian) ionosonde AIS; in 1984 the equipment was replaced by Australian ionosonde IPS-42. Since January 2004 the ionospheric service has been provided by the Digisonde. The data from the Digisonde are available on the webpage in real time. 

Three basic types of measurements are realized at Průhonice by the Digisonde DPS-4:

1) Classical ionospheric vertical sounding - routine repetition (15 min) soundings + a few campaigns of more frequent measurements

2) Ionospheric plasma drift measurements (15 min repetition) for:

  • F region (autodrift mode)
  • E region (heights interval 90-150 km and fixed frequency window 2.0-2.6 MHz)

3) Synchronized D2D measurements – oblique sounding between ionospheric observatories in Europe. Different single-frequency signals are used for different paths. The network is able to detect TIDs in European region by analyzing evolution of measured Doppler frequency, angle of arrival, and time of flight of the sky wave signals.

Head of the Observatory Průhonice is D. Kouba.

We run the Regional Warning Centre Prague of the International Space Environmental Service (ISES, Czech Representative D. Obrazová (Burešová) - ionospheric observations are on a daily basis supplied into this worldwide data exchange network. Digisonde observations are also supplied in real time to the European ionospheric server DIAS, to the worldwide Digisonde database GIRO (mirror site is in our institute) and to SWACI (European maps of TEC).

One of the transmitters of the Czech Doppler sounding system is installed at the observatory Pruhonice. The Doppler sounding system operating close to the Digisonde DPS-4D extends possibilities of investigation of processes in the ionosphere via common volume sounding. Also a GNSS receiver is installed at Průhonice; its measurements are provided in real time to the Czech geodetic network.

Průhonice Ionospheric Station - latest measurements