Testing the IONORT-ISP system: a comparison between synthesized and measured oblique ionograms
Abstract
The three-dimensional (3-D) electron density representation of the ionosphere computed by the assimilative IRI-SIRMUP-P (ISP) model was tested using IONORT (IONOspheric Ray-Tracing), a software application for calculating a 3-D ray-tracing for high frequency waves in the ionospheric medium. A comparison between synthesized and measured oblique ionograms demonstrates both that the ISP model can more accurately represent real conditions in the ionosphere than IRI, and that the ray-tracing computed by IONORT is reasonably reliable.; Figure 1. a) Oblique ionograms recorded over the Rome-Chania radio link on 4 July 2011 at 20:00 UT. b) Oblique ionograms synthesized by the IONORT-ISP system without applying the azimuth cycle. Green circles and green arrows respectively highlight growing monotone trends and frequency gaps. c) Oblique ionograms synthesized by the IONORT-ISP system, including application of the azimuth cycle. WF (with field) and NF (no field) respectively indicate that the synthesized ionograms were computed with or without taking the geomagnetic field into account. ; Figure 2. Upper graph: MUF obtained from measured oblique ionograms (red circles), from IONORT-IRI synthesized oblique ionograms (grey circles), and from IONORT-ISP synthesized oblique ionograms (green circles). Lower graph: a comparison between the differences [MUF_IONORT-IRI - MUF_meas] (grey squares), and [MUF_IONORT-ISP - MUF_meas] (green squares).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMSM23B2317S
- Keywords:
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- 1976 INFORMATICS / Software tools and services;
- 2443 IONOSPHERE / Midlatitude ionosphere;
- 6964 RADIO SCIENCE / Radio wave propagation;
- 7944 SPACE WEATHER / Ionospheric effects on radio waves