Correction of Ionosphere Models Based on Ground Ionosonde Data

Abstract

Empirical median models of the ionosphere are widely used to predict the propagation of high-frequency radio waves. Their adaptation to the real state of the ionosphere is necessary to reduce errors in the flux forecast. A method is proposed for the correction of the IRI-2016 ionosphere model based on data from a ground-based ionosonde network. It does not use the ionospheric parameters themselves but rather their deviations from model values, since these deviations are smoother functions of time and geographical coordinates. The results of numerical modeling according to the proposed correction scheme resulted in a significant improvement in the correspondence of the parameters of radio-wave propagation (the maximum applicable frequency of the path, range, etc.) and real experimental data.