A comparative study of the bottomside profile parameters over Wuhan with IRI-2001 for 1999–2004

Abstract

The diurnal, seasonal, and solar activity variations of the bottomside ionospheric profile parameters B0 and B1 are studied using electron density profiles measured over Wuhan (30.4 • N, 114.4• E) of China with a DGS-256 Digisonde during 1999-2004. Comparisons are made with the International Reference Ionosphere model (IRI-2001) using both the standard option (B0-Tab and B1-Tab) and the Gulyaeva's option (B0-Gul and B1-Gul). The results show that: (1) observed B0 has distinct diurnal and seasonal variations, while observed B1 changes little with season. The value of B0 is larger in summer than that in equinox and winter, especially for daytime. In winter and equinox, B0 also presents morning and afternoon collapses as reported by Lei et al. (2004). (2) B0 increases about 18.6 km from low solar activity (LSA) to high solar activity (HSA). B1 in HSA is smaller than that in LSA before 10:00 LT and with an opposite tendency during the rest time. (3) Observed B0 is in better agreement with B0-Gul than with B0-Tab, though the B0-Gul overestimates during 09:00 to 17:00 LT in equinox and summer. B0-Tab is 12-20 km larger than the observations over Wuhan almost all the time. Meanwhile, B1-Tab is in good agreement with the observations.

Equatorial vertical plasma drifts and the measured and IRI model-predicted F 2-layer parameters above Ouagadougou during solar minimum

“…The nighttime behavior (Fig. 4(c)) indicates somewhat "wave-like" pattern parallel to longitudinal behavior presented by Liu et al (2010) and seasonal variations of B o reported by Chen et al (2006) and Zhang et al (2008). Comparisons between Figs.…”

Comparison of ionospheric equivalent slab thickness with bottomside digisonde profile over Wuhan

“…The bottomside thickness parameters have also been studied by various researchers over the last three decades, including Booker (1977), Rawer et al (1985), Rawer (1988), Reinisch (2001), Stankov et al (2003), Zhang et al (2004), Chen et al (2006), Liu et al (2007), Nambala et al (2008), and Lee et al (2008). They have presented that the B0 shows distinct diurnal and seasonal variations, while B1 changes a little with seasons.…”

The International Reference Ionosphere – Status 2013

“…(1) this can then be converted into a model for B 0 . A much larger data base covering a wide range of global, seasonal, and solar cycle conditions was used by Bilitza et al (2000) for their B 0 and B 1 models that grew out of an IRI Task Comparisons with newer ionosonde data from a wide range of stations found marked shortcomings of both model options in accurately representing the observed seasonal and solar activity variations of B 0 and B 1 (Lee and Reinisch, 2006;Lee et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2006;Blanch et al, 2007;Sethi et al, 2009) and this was also confirmed with Millstone Hill incoherent scatter data by Lei et al (2004). The IRI team therefore strongly encouraged the development of new B 0 and B 1 models that would overcome these shortcomings and take advantage of the much increased data base.…”