Electron Density Comparisons between Radar Observations and 3-D Ionospheric Model Calculations.

摘要

A comparison of electron densities calculated from the Utah State University First-Principals Ionospheric Model with simultaneous observations taken at Sondrestrom, Millstone, and Arecibo incoherent-scatter radars was undertaken to better understanding the response of the ionosphere at these longitudinally similar yet latitudinally separated locations. The comparison included over 50 days distributed over 3 1/2 years roughly symmetrical about the last solar-minimum in 1986. The overall trend of the comparison was that to first-order the model reproduces electron densities responding to diurnal, seasonal, geomagnetic, and solar-cycle variations for all three radars. However, some model-observation discrepancies were found. These include, failure of the model to correctly produce an evening peak at Millstone, fall-spring equinox differences at Sondrestrom, tidal structure at Arecibo, and daytime NmF2 values at Arecibo. Keywords: Ionospheric propagation; Radar signals; Incoherent scattering; Ionospheric models. (RH)