Abstract
The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) is an empirical model for providing ionospheric parameters, including Total Electron Content (TEC), electron density, electron and ion temperature etc., in the altitude range from 50 km to 2000 km. Since the IRI model is limited up to 2000 km, IRI-PLAS model, plasmasphere extension of the IRI model, was proposed by the researchers. This paper investigates the TEC prediction performance of IRI-PLAS and IRI-2012 models by comparing GPS TEC data, in different latitude regions for magnetically active and quiet days. TEC data over 9 International GNSS Service (IGS) stations, located in different latitude regions, are used for the comparison. Evaluation of the diurnal results reveals good agreement with correlation coefficient >0.9 between GPS-TEC and empirical models for the quiet day irrespectively of the latitudinal data used. However, while the differences are not relatively high in most part of the active day, they reach high level, above 30 TECu, in some part of the day.
Highlights
The ionosphere is a part of the Earth’s atmospheric region where the enough ionized molecules and free electron density affect the propagation of radio frequency electromagnetic waves
Tariku [2015] discussed the performance of the latest version of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) [IRI_2012] model for estimating the vertical total electron content (VTEC) variation over Ethiopian regions during the rising phase of solar cycle 24 (2009-2011)
This study examines the Total Electron Content (TEC) prediction performance of IRI_PLAS model in different part of the world
Summary
The ionosphere is a part of the Earth’s atmospheric region where the enough ionized molecules and free electron density affect the propagation of radio frequency electromagnetic waves. Empirical models can provide reliable simulation data for effective ionospheric study and forecasting [Akala et al 2015] For this purpose, several empirical models like International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) [Bilitza 2001], Parameterized Ionospheric model (PIM) [Daniell et al 1995], Parameterized, real time ionospheric specification model (PRISM) [Daniel and Brown 1995], Semi-Empirical Low Latitude Ionospheric Model (SLIM) [Anderson et al 1987], Field Line Inter Hemispheric Plasma Model (FLIP) [Scali et al 1997], Thermosphere–Ionosphere General Circulation Model (TIGCM) [Emery et al 1996], Utah State University Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (USA_GAIM) [Scherliess et al 2006], Bent model [Bent and Llewelly 1973], NeQuick model [Alcay et al 2014], Sheffield University Plasmasphere Ionosphere Model (SUPIM) [Bailey et al 1997] have been developed. The model overestimates VTEC values for most hours, it generally performs well in estimating diurnal VTEC values, just after the midnight hours (0 UT-3 UT)
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