A correction for the IRI topside electron density model based on Alouette/ISIS topside sounder data

Abstract

The topside segment of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) electron density model (and also of the Bent model) is based on the limited amount of topside data available at the time (∼40,000 Alouette 1 profiles). Being established from such a small database it is therefore not surprising that these models have well-known shortcomings, for example, at high solar activities. Meanwhile a large data base of close to 200,000 topside profiles from Alouette 1, 2, and ISIS 1, 2 has become available online. A program of automated scaling and inversion of a large volume of digitized ionograms adds continuously to this data pool. We have used the currently available ISIS/Alouette topside profiles to evaluate the IRI topside model and to investigate ways of improving the model. The IRI model performs generally well at middle latitudes and shows discrepancies at low and high latitudes and these discrepancies are largest during high solar activity. In the upper topside IRI consistently overestimates the measurements. Based on averages of the data–model ratios we have established correction factors for the IRI model. These factors vary with altitude, modified dip latitude, and local time.