International Reference Ionosphere as a potential regularization profile for computerized ionospheric tomography

Abstract

In recent years, radio ray tomography of the ionosphere has developed into a very useful technique for the study of the ionosphere. Compact generalized singular value decomposition (CGSVD) is used to study the feasibility of using the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model as a regularization profile for ionospheric tomography experiments. TEC data obtained from a meridional chain of three LEO satellite receivers located in Alaska, USA are used for reconstruction of the poleward edge of the mid latitude ionosphere and the high latitude ionosphere. Results show that the IRI has the potential of becoming a useful regularization profile for computerized tomographic reconstruction of the ionosphere. The error estimates for reconstructed images with IRI and Chapman as regularization profiles show that the IRI is a better profile to use under quiet and moderate geomagnetic conditions. Under severe geomagnetic conditions, the IRI and Chapman regularization profiles produce reconstructed images of comparable quality. It has also been observed that the foF2 values obtained from reconstructed images that use the IRI as a regularization profile are closer to measured values than those obtained from the images reconstructed with the Chapman regularization profile.