Brett Carter

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at RMIT University

Global Navigation Satellite System fast precise positioning can be achieved with accurate ionospheric corrections computed from an adequate number of GNSS stations in a local region. Our previous study showed that using 15 well-distributed GNSS stations within a 5° latitude x 10° longitude region, a local regression model for ionospheric correction...

Space weather is a key component in the daily operation of many technological systems and applications; including large-scale power grids, high-frequency radio systems and satellite systems. As the international space sector continues to boom, accessible space weather products, tools and education are increasingly important to ensure that space act...

Atmospheric mass density (AMD) plays a vital role in the drag calculation for space objects in low Earth orbit. Many empirical AMD models have been developed and used for orbit prediction and efforts continue to improve their accuracy in forecasting high-altitude atmospheric conditions. Previous studies have assessed these models at the height of 2...

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) Radio Occultation data has been previously used as a way of investigating the climatology of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPB). These low‐density regions can cause random phase and amplitude scintillation of satellite signals and forecasting these is an important pri...

An unseasonal equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) event over South‐East Asia was observed on July 22, 2014 that has not been studied before. An investigation into this event is presented with the 26th July, 2014 as a comparison, non‐bubble day. The 22nd July EPB event occurred in the late post‐sunset sector and was associated with a small upward plasma...

Predicting the daily variability of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) is an ongoing scientific challenge. Various methods for predicting EPBs have been developed, however, the research community is yet to scrutinize the methods for evaluating and comparing these prediction models/techniques. In this study, 12 months of co‐located GPS and UHF scintil...

The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space is a United Nations treaty that serves as a means of identifying which States bear international responsibility and liability for space objects. It is an important mechanism of international coordination, forming part of the existing international legal framework that governs outer...

The impact of the interplanetary shock and of the Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on the Earth’s magnetosphere perturbs the geomagnetic field causing the occurrence of geomagnetic storms. Such extremely variable geomagnetic fields trigger geomagnetic effects measurable not only in the geospace but also in the ionosphere and at the ground. The rapid v...

The space environment near Earth is constantly subjected to changes in the solar wind flow generated at the Sun. Examples of effects resulting from this variability are the occurrence of powerful solar disturbances, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The impact of CMEs on the Earth's magnetosphere very often greatly perturbs the geomagnetic fie...

The space environment near Earth is constantly subjected to changes in the solar wind flow generated at the Sun. Examples of this variability are the occurrence of powerful solar disturbances, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The impact of CMEs on the Earth’s magnetosphere perturbs the geomagnetic field causing the occurrence of geomagnetic s...

The space physics community continues to grow and become both more interdisciplinary and more intertwined with commercial and government operations. This has created a need for a framework to easily identify what projects can be used for specific applications and how close the tool is to routine autonomous or on-demand implementation and operation....

The impact of the interplanetary shock and of the Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) on the Earth’s magnetosphere perturbs the geomagnetic field causing the occurrence of geomagnetic storms. Such extremely variable geomagnetic fields trigger geomagnetic effects measurable not only in the geospace but also in the ionosphere and at the ground. The rapid v...

The paper presents a detailed analysis of the density‐temperature (ρ‐T) synchrony in the thermosphere using a hydrostatic general circulation model. The numerical models in general offer not only great potential for forecasting the transient response of the thermosphere but also are excellent tools for understanding the driving mechanisms of variou...

The space physics community continues to grow and become both more interdisciplinary and more intertwined with commercial and government operations. This has created a need for a framework to easily identify what projects can be used for specific applications and how close the tool is to routine autonomous or on-demand implementation and operation....

Nearly frontal and high-speed shocks compress the magnetosphere symmetrically enhancing the equatorial electroject current intensification. This can cause the generation of high-risk dB/dt variations that can cause damage of power plant equipment overtime if magnetic equatorial stations are located around noon local time.

Abstract An unseasonal development of Equatorial Plasma Bubble (EPB)/Equatorial Spread-F (ESF) activity in a wide longitudinal sector over India and Southeast Asia during the post-sunset hours of 28 July 2014 has been investigated in detail using the multiple independent observations in this paper and a companion paper by (Prog Earth Planet Sci 5:1...

Vertical total electron content (VTEC) global ionospheric maps (GIM) are commonly used to correct the ionospheric delay of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals for single-frequency positioning and other ionospheric studies. The measurements observed by inhomogeneously distributed ground reference stations are the only data used to gene...

The space environment near Earth, is constantly subjected to changes in the solar wind flow generated by the Sun. Examples of effects resulting from this variability are the occurrence of powerful solar disturbances, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The impact of CMEs on the Earth's magnetosphere perturbs the geomagnetic field causing the occ...

New innovative technologies and business models are continuing to reduce the cost of launch and manufacture of space infrastructure, paving the way for increased participation in the space industry by corporations,start-ups, academia and emerging space powers in developing countries. As earth-orbital environments become increasingly populated, Spac...

Anomalous GPS radio occultation (RO) events are characterised as those with L1 bending angle greater than their corresponding L2 bending angle. An investigation by EUMETSAT and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office revealed there are regions in the earth's atmosphere where at times up to 60% of Global Navigation Satellite System Receiver for Atm...

The proliferation of space debris in recent decades has driven the aerospace research community to develop novel methods of data collection, fusion, and statistical inference in order to catalog and characterize the growing population of objects. This research is often facilitated by affordable, small-aperture telescopes that allow universities and...

Fragmentation events, caused by the collision of two objects in space, have been a significant source of space debris objects over a cumulative five decades of space activity. Current proposals by different commercial entities aim to launch constellations comprising thousands of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which would result in an increase...

The occurrence of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) poses serious threats to modern technological infrastructure. Large GICs result from sharp variations of the geomagnetic field (dB/dt) caused by changes of large-scale magnetospheric and ionospheric currents. Intense dB/dt perturbations are known to occur often in high-latitude regions as a...

The space environment near Earth, is constantly subjected to changes in the solar wind flow generated at the Sun. Examples of effects resulting from this variability are the occurrence of powerful solar disturbances, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The impact of CMEs on the Earth’s magnetosphere perturbs the geomagnetic field causing the occ...

This contribution is the first of a two-part investigation into an unseasonal post-sunset equatorial F-region irregularity (EFI) event over the Southeast Asian region on the evening of 28 July 2014. Ground-based GPS scintillation data, space-based GPS radio occultation (RO) data, and ionosonde data show the existence of EFIs shortly after sunset ov...

High-level summary: https://goo.gl/n4QvU7 >>> The first systematic comparison between Swarm-C accelerometer-derived thermospheric density and both empirical and physics-based model results using multiple model performance metrics is presented. This comparison is performed at the satellite’s high temporal 10-s resolution, which provides a meaningful...

The first systematic comparison between Swarm-C accelerometer-derived thermospheric density and both empirical and physics-based model results using multiple model performance metrics is presented. This comparison is performed at the satellite's high temporal 10-s resolution, which provides a meaningful evaluation of the models' fidelity for orbit...

In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of occurrence of L-band scintillation in association with the appearance of sporadic E (Es) along the magnetic dip equator during daytime in 2013. The presence of L-band scintillation was determined from signals collected with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) ground-based SCINDA (Scintillatio...

Without consideration of stochastic forces, orbital dynamical systems are expressed by ordinary differential equations (ODE) andits orbital uncertainty propagation (OUP) can be solved by one of the following methods: Monte Carlo simulations (MCS), statetransition tensors, polynomial chaos expansion, etc. While the stochastic forces or diffusion (e....

It has been well documented that the lunar tidal waves can modulate the ionospheric electrodynamics and create a visible influence on the equatorial electrojet (EEJ). The lunar tide influence gets intensified around noon, primarily during new and full Moon periods. However, the longitudinal, seasonal and solar cycle variability in the lunar tide in...

Although satellite observations demonstrate that there are large longitudinal differences in ionospheric density distributions, the availability of uneven distribution of ground-based instruments hinders understanding the physics behind the global ionospheric density distributions. For example, understanding the physics behind the unique equatorial...

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) represent a significant space weather issue for power grid and pipeline infrastructure, particularly during severe geomagnetic storms. In this study, magnetometer data collected from around the world are analyzed to investigate the GICs caused by the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm. While significant GIC activit...

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) represent a significant space weather issue for power grid and pipeline infrastructure, particularly during severe geomagnetic storms. In this study, magnetometer data collected from around the world are analyzed to investigate the GICs caused by the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm. While significant GIC activit...

In 2010 an international consortium led by RMIT University was awarded a multi-million-dollar Australian Space Research Program (ASRP) Project—“Platform Technologies for Space Atmosphere and Climate”. This project is part of the Australian Government’s recent space-related initiative to support national strategic, economic and social objectives. Th...

The existence and impact of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in the high-latitude region is rather well understood from decades of research and several previous examples of major power infrastructure failures around the world. Researchers have shown that the magnetic field signatures of sudden storm commencements (SSCs) at middle and low lat...

We present the results of our GPS total electron content (TEC) and ionosonde observations of large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (LSTIDs) during the 26 September 2011 geomagnetic storm. We analyzed the propagation characteristics of these LSTIDs from the auroral zones all the way to the equatorial region, and studied how the auroral LSTI...

An analysis of the occurrence of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) around the world during the 2015 St. Patrick's Day geomagnetic storm is presented. A network of 12 Global Positioning System receivers spanning from South America to South-east Asia was used, in addition to co-located VHF receivers at 3 stations and 4 nearby ionosondes. The suppressi...

The occurrences of 1.5 GHz daytime scintillations were recorded simultaneously at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and a station at Langkawi during November and December 2010. The characteristics of daytime GHz scintillation and their relationship with E-region irregularities in the equatorial region were investigated. Ground-based measurem...

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) caused by interplanetary shocks represent a serious space weather threat to modern technological infrastructure. The arrival of interplanetary shocks drives magnetosphere and ionosphere currents systems, which then induce electric currents at ground level. The impact of these currents at high latitudes has be...

The occurrence of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) has become an important research topic in the field of space science in recent years, due to the adverse influence of EPBs on many important technological applications. One such application is the use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS)....

In this study, the effects of transverse refractive gradients in the ionosphere and in the lower atmosphere on GPS signal paths for both ground-based receivers and receivers on board low Earth orbital satellites are examined. A three-dimensional numerical ray tracing technique, based on geometrical optics, together with the models of the ionosphere...

The feasibility of predicting the daily occurrence of Global Positioning System scintillation events using forecasts of common geophysical indices to drive a physics-based model of the system is demonstrated over a 5-month period for the African and Asian longitude sectors. The output from the Wing Kp model, which uses solar wind data to predict th...

This paper introduces the multi-million-dollar Australian Space Research Program (ASRP) Project—“Platform Technologies for Space Atmosphere and Climate,” recently awarded to an international consortium led by RMIT University, and reports the current progress and some results achieved so far. The project is part of the Australian Government’s recent...

GPS Radio Occultation (RO) is a robust space-based Earth observation technique, with the demonstrated potential for atmospheric profiling and meteorological applications. The GPS RO technique uses GPS receivers onboard Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to measure the received radio signals from GPS satellites to obtain atmospheric profiles such as t...

Numerical 3-D ray tracing techniques are commonly used for calculating the path of an electromagnetic signal in a medium specified by a refractive index that depends upon position. Numerical ray tracing is an important tool for applications of L-band frequency propagation such as GPS Radio Occultation (RO), where accurate and near real-time results...

Describing the day-to-day variability of Equatorial Plasma Bubble (EPB) occurrence remains a significant challenge. In this study we use the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIEGCM), driven by solar (F10.7) and geomagnetic (Kp) activity indices, to study daily variations of the linear Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instabil...

Presented is an analysis of the occurrence of post-sunset Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) detected using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver at Vanimo. The 3-year dataset shows that the EPB occurrence maximizes (minimizes) during the equinoxes (solstices), in good agreement with previous findings. The Vanimo ionosonde station is used with t...

Services delivered from satellites in the near-Earth space environment are under threat from orbiting space debris from over 50 years of space operations. Computational modelling studies have shown that even under optimistic mitigation scenarios remediation is necessary to curb the growth. In fact, certain regions of the low- Earth orbit are alread...

[1] Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based radio occultation (RO) is a satellite remote sensing technique providing accurate profiles of the Earth's atmosphere for weather and climate applications. Above about 30 km altitude, however, statistical optimization is a critical process for initializing the RO bending angles in order to optimize...

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) is an innovative meteorological remote sensing technique for measuring atmospheric parameters such as refractivity, temperature, water vapour and pressure for the improvement of numerical weather prediction (NWP) and global climate monitoring (GCM). GNSS RO has many unique characteris...

GNSS Radio Occultation (RO) is a robust space-borne technology for sounding the Earth's atmosphere with global coverage. The data retrieved using GNSS RO have been demonstrated to provide unprecedented advantages to operational weather analysis and forecasting and regional reanalysis and climate monitoring. This technology has been considered as a...

Applications that heavily rely on trans-ionospheric radio signals are subjected to many space weather phenomena that can adversely affect their operations. Perhaps the most significant space weather phenomenon affecting GNSS in particular is the generation of ionospheric plasma irregularities (or plasma waves) at locations close to the magnetic equ...

The technique of radio occultation (RO) is demonstrated to be a powerful tool for studying equatorial F-region irregularities (EFIs) associated with equatorial plasma bubbles. The extensive 4.9 year RO dataset of the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) satellites was employed in this study and contains EF...

The new pseudo three-dimensional (3-D) segment method analytical ray tracing technique (3-D SMART) is similar to the 2-D SMART technique however with the added ability to determine the effects of transverse refractive gradients on a ray path. In the past numerical ray tracing techniques using a form of Haselgrove's equations were required for reali...

The Australian Low Earth Orbit (LEO) microsatellite, FedSat (named to commemorate the centenary of the Australian Federation in 2001), was launched into orbit on December 14, 2002 from the Tanegashima Space Centre, Japan. A Global Positioning 79b System (GPS) receiver was one of the instruments onboard. The received GPS signals can be used to inves...

Ray tracing is an important tool for the operation of GPS L-band frequency signal propagation; in particular GPS RO techniques where accurate and near real-time results are often required. Ray tracing techniques are commonly used for calculating the path of an electromagnetic signal in a medium specified by a position dependent refractive index, su...

1] The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) control and magnetic conjugacy of the auroral E region backscatter are assessed using observations by the nominally conjugate Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) Syowa East and Pykkvibaer HF radars at $69° magnetic latitude and the ACE satellite measurements in the solar wind. A common-mode radar...

In this study, the global patterns of ionospheric scintillations observed by the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) satellites over a 4-year period are analysed. A clear advantage of employing the space-borne COSMIC Radio Occultation (RO) measurements, as opposed to using ground-based instruments, is tha...

This paper introduces the multi-million-dollar Australian Space Research Program (ASRP) Project—“Platform Technologies for Space Atmosphere and Climate,” recently awarded to an international consortium led by RMIT University, and reports the current progress and some results achieved so far. The project is part of the Australian Government’s recent...

We present a statistical study of the diurnal variations of the E-region backscatter occurrence observed by 15 SuperDARN radars over 3 years. The diurnal variation of echo occurrence observed by each radar is examined for three levels of geomagnetic activity. It is found that the E-region echo occurrence for individual radars exhibits very similar...

We report the first observations of E-region neutral wind fields and their interaction with auroral arcs at meso-scale spatial resolution during geomagnetically quiet conditions at Mawson, Antarctica. This was achieved by using a scanning Doppler imager, which can observe thermospheric neutral line-of-sight winds and temperatures simultaneously ove...

The high-spatial-resolution observations of the auroral E-region echoes by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) HF radar at Pykkvibaer, Iceland considered in a previous study are re-examined. Both the spectral power and Doppler velocity of the E-region HF echoes exhibit strong dependence on the slant range and expected off-perpendicular...

The dual Tasman International Geospace Environment Radar (TIGER) HF radars regularly observe E-region echoes at sub-auroral magnetic latitudes 58°–60° S including during geomagnetic storms. We present a statistical analysis of E-region backscatter observed in a period of ~2 years (late 2004–2006) by the TIGER Bruny Island and Unwin HF radars, with...

Storm-time coherent echoes observed by the SuperDARN HF radars in the short ranges corresponding to the E-region backscatter are investigated. Analysis of the spatial distribution of the echoes shows that during storms most of the echoes are detected at locations that are close to the expected locations calculated using a straight-line propagation...