On the possible use of radio occultation middle latitude electron density profiles to retrieve thermospheric parameters

Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate

Ioanna Tsagouri²  Bruno Zolesi¹  Loredanna Perrone¹  Anna Belehaki²  Andrei V. Mikhailov³ 

[1] Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV),Via di Vigna Murata 605,Rome00143,Italy;Institute of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, Metaxa and Vas. Pavlou,Palaia Penteli15236,Greece;Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation (IZMIRAN), Troitsk,Moscow Region142190,Russia

关键词: Density;    Satellites;    Drag;    Ionosphere (mid latitudes);    Thermosphere;   

Others  :  800623
DOI  :  doi:10.1051/swsc/2014009

 received in 2013-05-20, accepted in 2014-02-28,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

This paper investigates possible use of middle latitude daytime COSMIC and CHAMP ionospheric radio occultation (IRO) electron density profiles (EDPs) to retrieve thermospheric parameters, based on the Mikhailov et al. (2012) method. The aim of this investigation is to assess the applicability of this type of observations for the routine implementation of the method. According to the results extracted from the analysis presented here, about half of COSMIC IRO EDP observed under solar minimum (2007–2008) conditions gave neutral gas density with an inaccuracy close to the declared absolute inaccuracy ±(10–15)% of CHAMP observations, with the results being better than the empirical models JB-2008 and MSISE-00 provide. For the other half of IRO EDP, either the solution provided by the method had to be rejected due to insufficient accuracy or no solution could be obtained. For these cases, the parameters foF2 and hmF2 extracted from the corresponding IRO profiles have been found to be inconsistent with the classic mid-latitude daytime F2-layer formalism that the method relies on, and they are incompatible with the general trend provided by the IRI model. For solar maximum conditions (2002) the method was tested with IRO EDP from CHAMP and it is indicated that its performance is quite stable in the sense that a solution could be obtained for all the cases analyzed here. However available CHAMP EDP are confined by ~ 400 km in altitude and this might be the reason for the 20% bias of the retrieved densities toward larger values in respect to the observed densities. IRO observations up to 600 km under solar maximum are required to confirm the exact performance of the method.

【 授权许可】

   
© A.V. Mikhailov et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2014

【 图 表 】

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