A model assisted ionospheric electron density reconstruction method based on vertical TEC data ingestion

NAVA, B.; COISSON, P.; MIRO AMARANTE, G.; AZPILICUETA, F.; RADICELLA, S.

ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS

Istituto Nazionale de Geofisica e Vulcanologia

Lugar: Roma; Año: 2005 vol. 48 p. 313 - 320

1593-5213

A technique to reconstruct the electron density of the ionosphere, starting from total electron content values, has been developed using NeQuick ionospheric electron density model driven by an effective ionization parameter Az. The technique relies on the knowledge of Az values on a suitable worldwide grid of points. A simple way to obtain relevant Az grids is to use global vertical Total Electron Content (TEC) maps in order to define, for each grid point, as Az value, the one that minimizes the difference between the experimental and the modeled vertical TEC. Given a global grid of Az values for a specific epoch it is possible to compute the electron density value at any point in the ionosphere using NeQuick. As a consequence, slant TEC values for specific ground station to satellite links or peak parameter values at any location can be calculated. Comparisons between experimental and reconstructed slant TEC as well as experimental and reconstructed peak parameters indicate that the proposed reconstruction method can be used to reproduce ionospheric conditions in a realistic way.