Climatological study of the ion temperature in the ionosphere as recorded by Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar and comparison with the IRI model

Pignalberi, Alessio; Aksonova, K.; Zhang, Shun‐Rong; Truhlík, Vladimír; Gurram, P.; Pavlou, Charalambos

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2020.10.025

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The altitudes of Swarm satellites fall into standard remote sensing altitude ranges of all three ISRs, which provide reliable data for decades. A similar dataset referring to T i , for Millstone Hill was recently employed in Pignalberi et al [30].…”

Section: Electron Temperature Observations By Incoherent Scatter Radarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, the skeleton profile was integrated to obtain the Booker profile function of T e , which output a continuous and smooth description of the entire modeled T e vertical profile. For a detailed mathematical description of the Booker profile function formalism, refer to the Appendix section of Pignalberi et al [30].…”

Section: Electron Temperature Description By the Iri Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Electron Temperature in the Topside Ionosphere as Seen by Swarm Satellites, Incoherent Scatter Radars, and the International Reference Ionosphere Model

et al. 2021

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The global statistical median behavior of the electron temperature (Te) in the topside ionosphere was investigated through in-situ data collected by Langmuir Probes on-board the European Space Agency Swarm satellites constellation from the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2020. This is the first time that such an analysis, based on such a large time window, has been carried out globally, encompassing more than half a solar cycle, from the activity peak of 2014 to the minimum of 2020. The results show that Swarm data can help in understanding the main features of Te in the topside ionosphere in a way never achieved before. Te data measured by Swarm satellites were also compared to data modeled by the empirical climatological International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model and data measured by Jicamarca (12.0°S, 76.8°W), Arecibo (18.2°N, 66.4°W), and Millstone Hill (42.6°N, 71.5°W) Incoherent Scatter Radars (ISRs). Moreover, the correction of Swarm Te data recently proposed by Lomidze was applied and evaluated. These analyses were performed for two main reasons: (1) to understand how the IRI model deviates from the measurements; and (2) to test the reliability of the Swarm dataset as a new possible dataset to be included in the underlying empirical dataset layer of the IRI model. The results show that the application of the Lomidze correction improved the agreement with ISR data above all at mid latitudes and during daytime, and it was effective in reducing the mismatch between Swarm and IRI Te values. This suggests that future developments of the IRI Te model should include the Swarm dataset with the Lomidze correction. However, the existence of a quasi-linear relation between measured and modeled Te values was well verified only below about 2200 K, while for higher values it was completely lost. This is an important result that IRI Te model developers should properly consider when using the Swarm dataset.

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Section: Electron Temperature Observations By Incoherent Scatter Radarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Electron Temperature Description By the Iri Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Electron Temperature in the Topside Ionosphere as Seen by Swarm Satellites, Incoherent Scatter Radars, and the International Reference Ionosphere Model

et al. 2021

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“…However, several authors have highlighted the need for an improved description of the solar activity dependence in the IRI ion temperature modeling (Bilitza & Hoegy, 1990;Buonsanto, 1989). Truhlik et al (2021) proposed a new global model of T i , which resolves some shortcomings of the current option (as pointed out by, e.g., Pignalberi, Aksonova, et al, 2021;Rana et al, 2019). The model is based on a database comprising of almost all available T i satellite data obtained by means of RPA measurements.…”

Section: The Bil-1981 Ion Temperature Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Truhlik et al. (2021) proposed a new global model of T i , which resolves some shortcomings of the current option (as pointed out by, e.g., Pignalberi, Aksonova, et al., 2021; Rana et al., 2019). The model is based on a database comprising of almost all available T i satellite data obtained by means of RPA measurements.…”

Section: Plasma Temperaturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The International Reference Ionosphere Model: A Review and Description of an Ionospheric Benchmark

Bilitza

Pezzopane

Truhlík

et al. 2022

Reviews of Geophysics

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The terrestrial ionosphere is a plasma, that is, an ionized gas consisting of free electrons and ions. It is part of the Earth's atmosphere and is produced by solar radiation ionizing the neutral gas constituents. Only a small fraction of the neutral atmosphere is ionized. Typical ratios of electron to neutral gas density are 10 −2 at the top of the ionosphere (at a height of about 1,000 km), 10 −3 at the height of the ionospheric absolute electron density maximum (located roughly between 200 and 450 km of height), and 10 −8 at the bottom of the ionosphere (at a height of about 100 km). These limits mark the altitude boundaries of the ionosphere but they must not be considered fixed. They are highly variable in both space and time, in particular this is the case for the upper limit which marks the separation between the ionosphere below it and the plasmasphere above it (

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“…For the calculation of the ion temperature, the IRI model [13] employs an approach that is described in [14] (pp. 68-69) and was recently reviewed and assessed by Pignalberi et al [15] with the help of the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar (ISR) data. The essence of this approach is that the model uses Ti RPA data from the AEROS-A satellite at an altitude of 430 km to establish a fixed anchor point at this altitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Global Empirical Model of the Ion Temperature in the Ionosphere for the International Reference Ionosphere

et al. 2021

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This study presents a suggestion for improvement of the ion temperature (Ti) model in the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). We have re-examined ion temperature data (primarily available from NASA’s Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF)from older satellites and combined them with newly available data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), the Communication Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), and from the recently launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON). We have compiled these data into a unified database comprising in total Ti data from 18 satellites. By comparisons with long term records of ion temperature from the three incoherent scatter radars (ISRs) (Jicamarca, Arecibo, and Millstone Hill), it was found that an intercalibration is needed to achieve consistency with the ISR data and among individual satellite data sets. This database with thus corrected data has been used for the development of a new global empirical model of Ti with inclusion of solar activity variation. This solar activity dependence is represented by an additive correction term to the Ti global pattern. Due to the limited data coverage at altitudes above 1000 km, the altitude range described by the model ranges from 350 km to 850 km covering only the region where generally Ti is higher than the neutral temperature (Tn) and lower than the electron temperature (Te). This approach is consistent with the current description of Ti in the IRI model. However, instead of one anchor point at 430 km altitude as in the current IRI, our approach includes anchor points at 350, 430, 600, and 850 km. At altitudes above 850 km Ti is merged using a gradient derived from the model at 600 and 850 km, with the electron temperature described by the IRI-2016/TBT-2012 option. Comparisons with the ISR data (Jicamarca, Arecibo, Millstone Hill, and Kharkiv) for high and low solar activity and equinox show that the proposed Ti model captures local time variation of Ti at different altitudes and latitudes better than the current IRI-2016 Ti model.

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Climatological study of the ion temperature in the ionosphere as recorded by Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar and comparison with the IRI model

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

On the Electron Temperature in the Topside Ionosphere as Seen by Swarm Satellites, Incoherent Scatter Radars, and the International Reference Ionosphere Model

On the Electron Temperature in the Topside Ionosphere as Seen by Swarm Satellites, Incoherent Scatter Radars, and the International Reference Ionosphere Model

The International Reference Ionosphere Model: A Review and Description of an Ionospheric Benchmark

A Global Empirical Model of the Ion Temperature in the Ionosphere for the International Reference Ionosphere

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