Description

UPC is a public University under the jurisdiction of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. The members of UPC-IonSAT research group, which focuses on precise ionospheric measurements and satellite navigation, have more than 25 years of experience in new GNSS models for ionospheric modeling, space weather and precise positioning. This has led to ION-GNSS best-paper awards, IGS Ionosphere WG (IGS Iono-WG) and IAG's Real-Time Ionosphere Monitoring (IAG's RTIM) chairmanships. The portfolio of its members can be summarized as:

  • More than 100 ISI/JCR indexed papers in peer-reviewed publications and more than 200 presentations (*).
  • More than 40 international competitive projects (10 as coordinator; 6 currently active mainly funded by EC-H2020, GSA and ESA).
  • +4900 scientific citations, h-index 31 and i10-index 81 (see details in https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tm-DcsMAAAAJ&hl=en).
  • 7 GNSS patents, including the ones for Fast PPP and Wide Area RTK, which are international.
  • Selection of the UPC-IonSAT software generating Global Ionospheric Maps (TOMIONv1.*) to be installed at GSA to assess the Galileo segment control and broadcast ionospheric model.
  • Selection of the GNSS Flare UPC-IonSAT software to be installed at the European Commission Space Weather SSA service.
  • Selection of the UPC-IonSAT RT-Global Ionospheric Maps, which are being run 24/7 to support ICAO.
  • 8 doctorate scientists, working the most part of them in the GNSS topic from different European institutions and companies.
  • Participation in many international schools on Global Navigation Satellite Systems and Ionospheric Sounding (USA, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan).

Most of the present research activities developed by UPC-IonSAT are associated with several active international projects won in open competition, focused on three main areas:

  1. GNSS Ionospheric sounding.
  2. Precise GNSS positioning.
  3. Earth & Solar observation.

The head of UPC-IonSAT research group, which is part of IEEC's CTECRAE group, is Full Prof. Dr. M. Hernandez-Pajares.