Ionosphere is one of the largest error sources when the navigational signals produced by Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are transmitted. Therefore it is very important to estimate total electron contents (TEC) in ionosphere precisely for navigation, precise positioning and some other applications. When we provide ionospheric TEC values in real-time, its application can be expanded to other areas. In this study we have used data obtained from nine Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reference stations which have been operated by Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) to detect ionospheric TEC over South Korea in real-time. We performed data processing that covers converting 1Hz raw data delivered from GNSS reference stations to Receiver INdependent Exchange (RINEX) format files at intervals of 5 minutes. We also analyzed the elevation angles of GPS satellites, vertical TEC (VTEC) values and their changes.

Various features of the existing perturbations in the Earth’s spin rotation are investigated for the recent and most reliable data by spectral analysis, filtering, and comparison with idealized model. First, theory of Earth’s spin rotational perturbation is briefly re-derived in the Earth-fixed coordinate frame. By spectral windowings, different periodic components of the length of day perturbation are separated, and their characters and excitations are discussed. Different periodic components of polar motion are acquired similarly and described with further discussion of their excitations. Causes of the long time trends of both the length of day and polar motion are discussed. Three possible causes are considered for the newly discovered 490-day period component in the polar motion.