A new regional total electron content empirical model in northeast China

Abstract

Using total electron content (TEC) data over one and a half solar cycles (1999–2015) provided by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), this paper proposes a new empirical TEC model for northeast China (40–50N, 120–130E). The model, called TECM-NEC, involves the multiplication of four separable components, including diurnal variation, seasonal variation, geomagnetic field dependency, and solar dependency. Diurnal variation is composed of three parts: the typical daily variation of TEC; corrections of Mid-latitude Summer Nighttime Anomaly (MSNA) that depend on geographic location, season, and local time; and corrections of day-to-night ratio under different seasons and solar activities. Four sub-harmonics of the year with annual, semiannual, four-, and three-month periods are used to describe seasonal variations. For geomagnetic variation, geomagnetic latitude is based on the latest International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF12) model. Compared with similar empirical models, the solar proxy index F10.7P = (F10.7 + F10.7A)/2, where F10.7A is the 81-day running mean of daily F10.7, is chosen as having linear relationship with TEC for the model. This model has 43 coefficients, which are determined by nonlinear least squares fitting (NLSF) technique. The TECM-NEC model fits with the TEC/CODE input data with a bias of 0.03TECU and a RMS deviation of 2.76TECU. The proposed TECM-NEC model can reproduce the MSNA and nighttime TEC enhancements phenomenon over northeast China.