Long-duration conjugate observations by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) and the ionosonde at Zhongshan station from the International Polar Year (IPY) during solar minimum conditions are analyzed, with respect to variability in the F 2-layer peak parameters. A comparison between International Reference Ionosphere2007 (IRI-2007) and observation data clearly demonstrates good agreement in summer, but greater deviations in winter. The IRI model reproduces the F 2 peak parameters dominated by solar photoionization reasonably well, but it does not address the effect of electron precipitation. Hence, the discrepancies become large in the winter auroral ionosphere.
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