An improved bottomside for the ionospheric electron density model NeQuick

Main Article Content

R. Leitinger
M. L. Zhang
S. M. Radicella

Abstract

The ionospheric electron density model NeQuick is a «profiler» which uses the peaks of the E-layer, the F1-layer
and the F2-layer as anchor points. In the version prepared for and submitted to the International Telecommunication
Union (ITU) the model uses the ITU-R (CCIR) maps for foF2 and M(3000)F2 and adapted maps similar
to the ITU-R ones for foE and foF1. Since users found problematic behaviour of NeQuick under conditions
of strong differences of foE and foF2 map structures, the profiling was adapted by changing the properties of the
Epstein layers used for this purpose. The new formulation avoids both strange horizontal structures of the geographic
distribution of electron density in fixed heights and unrealistic peculiarities of the height profile which
occasionally occurred with the old version of the model. Since the Epstein layer approach allows for 8 parameters
only (3 layer amplitudes and 5 semi-thicknesses) the adaptation was no minor task but needed careful planning
of suitable strategies.

Article Details

How to Cite
Leitinger, R., Zhang, M. L. and Radicella, S. M. (2005) “An improved bottomside for the ionospheric electron density model NeQuick”, Annals of Geophysics, 48(3). doi: 10.4401/ag-3217.
Section
OLD

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