Comparisons of experimental topside electron concentration profiles with IRI and NeQuick models

B Nava B Nava,S M Radicella S M Radicella,P Coisson P Coisson

doi:10.4401/ag-3492

Abstract

A critical part of the vertical ionospheric electron concentration profile is the region above its maximum (topside ionosphere) and many attempts have been made to model this region because of the limited experimental data available. Recently, many topside electron concentration profiles obtained with the Intercosmos-19 satellite became accessible through the Internet. The period analyzed corresponds to March 1979 - December 1980, a time interval of high solar activity. The present work describes the comparison of these profiles with the IRI and NeQuick model profiles obtained by driving the models with the values of the maximum electron concentration and its height given by the satellite.

Highlights

Modeling of the vertical electron concentration profile in the region above the maximum of the ionosphere has not yet reached a satisfactory global representation
Ionosondes installed on satellites yielded measurements of topside electron concentration profiles, but only recently have those data sets been made available to the scientific community
The database used in this work is the IZMIRAN database of topside profiles accessible through the web, which at the time of presentation of this work contained more than 5000 topside electron concentration profiles from the Intercosmos-19 satellite, in the period of high solar activity from March 1979 to December 1980

Summary

Introduction

Modeling of the vertical electron concentration profile in the region above the maximum of the ionosphere has not yet reached a satisfactory global representation. It can use experimental values of F2 peak electron concentration (i.e. f0F2) and height as inputs. – NeQuick is a quick-run model for ionospheric applications It is based on the DGR «profiler» concept (Di Giovanni and Radicella, 1990). The input parameters of the model can be various: ITU-R (former CCIR) coefficients for f0F2 and M(3000)F2 and R12 and/or monthly mean F 10.7; measured values of f0 E, f0 F1, f0 F2 and M(3000)F2; F2 peak concentration and peak height; regional maps of f0F2 and M(3000)F2 based on grid values constructed from data obtained at given locations. The output is the vertical or slant profile of electron density and the corresponding total electron content to any given height up to 20 000 km (Hochegger et al, 2000; Radicella and Leitinger, 2001)

Comparison technique

Results

Conclusions