Abstract
The coverage area of GNSS regional ionospheric correction model is mainly determined by the disribution of GNSS ground monitoring stations. Outside the coverage area, GNSS users may receive ionospheric correction signals but the correction does not contain valid correction information. Extrapolation of the correction information can extend the coverage area to some extent. Three interpolation methods, Kriging, biharmonic spline and cubic spline, are tested to evaluate the extrapolation accuracy of the ionospheric delay corrections outside the correction coverage area. IGS (International GNSS Service) ionosphere map data is used to simulate the corrections and to compute the extrapolation error statistics. Among the three methods, biharmonic method yields the best accuracy. The estimation error has a high value during Spring and Fall. The error has a high value in South and East sides and has a low value in North side.