Comparisons of observed ionospheric F2 peak parameters with IRI-2001 predictions over South Africa
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Date
2009
Authors
Adewale, Adekola
Oyeyemi, Elijah
McKinnell, Lee-Anne
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
The monthly means of the ionospheric F2 peak parameters (foF2 and hmF2) over three stations in South Africa (Grahamstown,33.31S, 26.51E, Madimbo, 22.41S, 26.51E, and Louisvale, 28.51S, 21.21E) were analyzed and compared with IRI-2001, using CCIR (Comite´ Consultatif International des Radio communications)and URSI (Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale coefficients)options. The analysis covers a few selected quiet and disturbed days during various seasons represented by the months of January, April, July and October 2003. IRI-2001 generally over estimates hmF2 for both quiet and disturbed days and it over estimates and underestimates foF2 at different times for all the stations. In general, foF2 is predicted more accurately by IRI-2001 than hmF2, and on average, the CCIR option performed better than the URSI option when predicting both foF2 and hmF2. In general, the model generates good results, although some improvements are still necessary to be implemented in order to obtain better predictions. There are no significant differences in the model predictions of hmF2 and foF2 for quiet and disturbed days.
Description
Keywords
Ionosphere , International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) , HmF2 (height of the maximum electron density of the F2 layer) , foF2 (critical frequency of the F2 layer)
Citation
Adewale, A.O., Oyeyemi, E.O., McKinnell, L.A. (2009). Comparisons of observed ionospheric F2 peak parameters with IRI-2001 predictions over South Africa. J. Atmos. Sol. Terr. Phys. 71, 273–284