SPECIAL ISSUE DEADLINE EXTENSION - October 31st: International Reference Ionosphere: Improvement and Evaluation of a Global Standard

Guest Editors: Dieter Bilitza (1), Joseph Olwendo (2), Alessio Pignalberi (3), Michael Pezzopane (3)

(1) George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

(2) Pwani University, Department of Physics, Kilifi, Kenya

(3) Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Rome, Italy 

With more and more of our daily life depending so much on space technology it is critically important to have an accurate and reliable representation of the Earth’s geospace environment. The ionosphere is a particularly important part of geospace because any technique that uses a probing signal travelling through this region needs to account for the retarding and refractive effect that this region imposes on the signal. The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) is the internationally accepted standard for the ionosphere and is officially certified as such by the International Standardization Organization (ISO). The model is used for a wide range of applications in science (across many disciplines), engineering, and education.

The aim of this special issue is to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the current status of the IRI model and global efforts to enhance its accuracy and reliability in predicting ionospheric weather and climate. We invite papers addressing all aspects of improving and evaluating the IRI model.

Of particular interest are contributions that:

• Present novel modeling approaches or new models for specific parameters or regions for future inclusion in the IRI;

• Assess the model's performance using new ground-based or space-based data;

• Explore methods for assimilating real-time or retrospective data into ionospheric models, a topic of growing interest in recent years. 

Additionally, we encourage users of the IRI model to share insights about their specific applications and experiences with the model.

Opening of the submissions: 1 February 2025 

Closing of the submissions: 31 OCTOBER 2025

The accepted papers are scheduled for publication in a special issue of the Annals of Geophysics (https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu), which is expected to be released by early 2026.

In preparing manuscripts, authors must follow Annals of Geophysics’ author guidelines (https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu/index.php/annals/submission-guidelines-2024). 

Papers must be submitted via the online submission system of Annals of Geophysics (https://www.annalsofgeophysics.eu) under the “Section”: “Special Issue: IRI – improving a global standard”