Comparison of SuperDARN peak electron density estimates based on elevation angle measurements to ionosonde and incoherent scatter radar measurements

Alexander V Koustov,Nozomu Nishitani,Sydney Ullrich,Pavlo V Ponomarenko,David R Themens,Robert G Gillies

doi:10.1186/s40623-020-01170-w

Alexander V Koustov, Nozomu Nishitani + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-020-01170-w

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Abstract

Measurements of the electron density at the F region peak by the Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI) and the Resolute Incoherent Scatter Radar (RISR) are used to assess the quality of peak electron density estimates made from elevation angle measurements by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) high-frequency radar at Rankin Inlet (RKN). All three instruments monitor the ionosphere near Resolute Bay. The CADI-RKN joint dataset comprises measurements between 2008 and 2017 while RISR-RKN dataset covers about 60 daylong events in 2016. Reasonable agreement between the RKN estimates and measurements by CADI and RISR is shown. Two minor discrepancies are discussed: RKN radar daytime peak electron density overestimation by ~ 10% and underestimation by up to 30% in other time sectors. In winter nighttime and dawn, cases were identified in which the RKN radar significantly overestimates the peak electron density. This occurs when the phase in the RKN interferometer measurements is incorrectly shifted by 2uppi , and this is most significant when electron densities are low. Statistical fitting to the joint data sets, split into four time sectors of a day, has been done and parameters of the fit have been determined. These allow slight adjustment of measured real-time RKN values to better reflect real peak electron densities in the ionosphere within its field of view.

Highlights

Knowledge of the electron density distribution in the high-latitude ionosphere is fundamentally important for various practical applications such as high-frequency (HF) radio wave communication (Davies 1990; Hunsucker 1991; Rawer 2013)
At ~ 12 Local Time (LT), the Resolute Incoherent Scatter Radar (RISR) electron densities are somewhat larger than those measured by Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI)
The Rankin Inlet (RKN) NmF 2 values tend to be close to those measured by CADI

Summary

Introduction

Knowledge of the electron density distribution in the high-latitude ionosphere is fundamentally important for various practical applications such as high-frequency (HF) radio wave communication (Davies 1990; Hunsucker 1991; Rawer 2013). The electron density at the F region peak has been traditionally studied through ionosonde observations (Davies 1990; Hunsucker 1991; Rawer 2013). This is because obtaining the maximum electron density value from routinely recorded ionograms is a relatively easy task provided that the ionogram traces are well defined. A significant body of data, covering a wide range of latitudes, has been accumulated (e.g., https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/World_Data_Centre)

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