Determination of the vertical electron-density profile in ionospheric tomography: experimental results
The reconstruction of the vertical electron-density profile is a fundamental problem in ionospheric tomography. Lack of near-horizontal ray paths limits the information available on the vertical profile, so that the resultant image of electron density is biased in a horizontal sense. The vertical pr...
| Published in: | Annales Geophysicae |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-997-0747-1 https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/15/747/1997/ |
| Summary: | The reconstruction of the vertical electron-density profile is a fundamental problem in ionospheric tomography. Lack of near-horizontal ray paths limits the information available on the vertical profile, so that the resultant image of electron density is biased in a horizontal sense. The vertical profile is of great importance as it affects the authenticity of the entire tomographic image. A new method is described whereby the vertical profile is selected using relative total-electron-content measurements. The new reconstruction process has been developed from modelling studies. A range of background ionospheres, representing many possible peak heights, scale heights and electron densities are formed from a Chapman profile on the bottomside with a range of topside profiles. The iterative reconstruction process is performed on all of these background ionospheres and a numerical selection criterion employed to select the final image. The resulting tomographic images show excellent agreement in electron density when compared with independent verification provided by the EISCAT radar. |
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