Characteristics of Ionospheric Responses over China During the November 2023 Geomagnetic Storm and Evaluation of Positioning Performance of CORS in Low-Latitude Regions

This study used Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations from the China Crustal Movement Observation Network (CMONOC) and the Kunming Continuously Operating Reference Station (KMCORS) network to investigate ionospheric response characteristics over China during the geomagnetic storm of 4–6 November 2023, and to assess their impacts on CORS-based real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning performance in the low-latitude Kunming region. A quantitative assessment was conducted by integrating regional two-dimensional dTEC (%) maps over China, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) total electron content (TEC), the rate of TEC index (ROTI), and RTK positioning solutions to evaluate ionospheric disturbances, irregularity activity, and associated degradation in positioning performance. Results indicate that, during geomagnetic storms, ionospheric responses over China exhibit pronounced phase-dependent and latitudinal variations. During the second geomagnetic storm on 5–6 November, positive responses were dominant at mid-to-high latitudes, whereas alternating positive and negative responses were observed at low latitudes. During the recovery phase, the Kunming region successively experienced a positive ionospheric storm lasting approximately 10 h, followed by a negative ionospheric storm lasting about 7 h, with relative TEC variations reaching a maximum of approximately 90%. The GEO TEC time series was consistent with the temporal evolution of the two-dimensional dTEC (%), while ROTI increased markedly during the disturbance enhancement period (21:00 UT on 5 November to 07:00 UT on 6 November 2023). During periods of enhanced ionospheric response and irregularities, RTK positioning performance was observed to deteriorate markedly. The fixed-solution rate at medium-to-long baseline stations decreased from nearly 100% to close to 0%, accompanied by an increase in vertical positioning errors to approximately 20 cm, whereas short-baseline stations were only minimally affected. These results indicate that ionospheric disturbances during geomagnetic storms exert a pronounced impact on CORS-based RTK positioning services in the Kunming region, with the magnitude of this impact being closely related to baseline length.