[time-nuts] Do ordinary clouds adversely affect GPS reception?

[jimlux]

On 10/22/19 1:13 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> --------
> In message <CADXevOaQ6a7eUoKciAttXhr5=w5Y6xxYbojFQMRB42x2QPLXfQ at mail.gmail.com>, Fiorenzo Cattaneo writes:
> 
>> Any kind of atmospheric disturbance has a measurable effect on GPS
>> space and time precision, [...]
> 
> Actually, it's even simpler than that:
> 
> Any electrical charge in the freshnell-zone between the two antennas
> delays the signal.
> 
> In practice that means "any ion ..."
> 
> Rain clouds harbour significant ionization, long before they become
> thunderstorms.


That's still a pretty small effect for RF propagation at L-band

and here's a paper discussing just such effects
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1112/1/012021/pdf

what happens here is that charge in a large thunderstorm affects the ion 
density in the ionosphere.

However, I don't think that's "cloudy day vs sunny day"




> 
> Apart from that, the lower atmosphere is pretty predictable with
> respect to ionization.
>