Effects of the Impact of Jet Engines of Progress Spaceships on the Ionosphere According to GPS Receivers of the Japanese Network GEONET

The present study focuses on the determination of the parameters of disturbance occurring in the ionosphere as a result of the impact of the jet engines of the spaceship “Progress” on the example of an active experiment May 4, 2006. The disturbance parameters were determined using total electron content data from the GPS station IRKT, as well as from the dense Japanese network GEONET. Analysis of the TEC series shows that a negative disturbance occurs in the affected area. The amplitude of the disturbance was about 0.03–0.04 TECU. According to the simulation data, the corresponding amplitude in electron density was estimated. It was about 3.5 × 105 el/cm3. The disturbance transverse size was about 120–140 km. The duration of the disturbance did not exceed 8 min. It is shown that the use of dense networks of stations of global navigation satellite systems can be effective for studying the dynamics of local electron density perturbations.