{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T09:45:24Z","timestamp":1775555124594,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,23]],"date-time":"2019-07-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1563840000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"NASA Postdoctoral Program","award":["administered by Universities Space Research Association through a contract with NASA"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["administered by Universities Space Research Association through a contract with NASA"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this study, we analyzed signals transmitted by the U.S. Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) geostationary (GEO) satellites using the Variometric Approach for Real-Time Ionosphere Observation (VARION) algorithm in a simulated real-time scenario, to characterize the ionospheric response to the 24 August 2017 Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. VARION is a real-time Global Navigation Satellites Systems (GNSS)-based algorithm that can be used to detect various ionospheric disturbances associated with natural hazards, such as tsunamis and earthquakes. A noise reduction algorithm was applied to the VARION-GEO solutions to remove the satellite-dependent noise term. Our analysis showed that the interactions of the exhaust plume with the ionospheric plasma depleted the total electron content (TEC) to a level comparable with nighttime TEC values. During this event, the geometry of the satellite-receiver link is such that GEO satellites measured the depleted plasma hole before any GPS satellites. We estimated that the ionosphere relaxed back to a pre-perturbed state after about 3 h, and the hole propagated with a mean speed of about 600 m\/s over a region of 700 km in radius. We conclude that the VARION-GEO approach can provide important ionospheric TEC real-time measurements, which are not affected by the motion of the ionospheric pierce points (IPPs). Furthermore, the VARION-GEO measurements experience a steady noise level throughout the entire observation period, making this technique particularly useful to augment and enhance the capabilities of well-established GNSS-based ionosphere remote sensing techniques and future ionospheric-based early warning systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11141734","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,23]],"date-time":"2019-07-23T10:44:51Z","timestamp":1563878691000},"page":"1734","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":40,"title":["Advantages of Geostationary Satellites for Ionospheric Anomaly Studies: Ionospheric Plasma Depletion Following a Rocket Launch"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8016-7411","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giorgio","family":"Savastano","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}]},{"given":"Attila","family":"Komjathy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}]},{"given":"Esayas","family":"Shume","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}]},{"given":"Panagiotis","family":"Vergados","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}]},{"given":"Michela","family":"Ravanelli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Geodesy and Geomatic Division, DICEA, University of Rome \u201cLa Sapienza\u201d, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy"}]},{"given":"Olga","family":"Verkhoglyadova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}]},{"given":"Xing","family":"Meng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0592-6182","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mattia","family":"Crespi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Geodesy and Geomatic Division, DICEA, University of Rome \u201cLa Sapienza\u201d, via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1073","DOI":"10.1029\/JZ066i004p01073","article-title":"A local reduction of F-region ionization due to missile transit","volume":"66","author":"Booker","year":"1961","journal-title":"J. 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