Validation of COSMIC ionospheric peak parameters by the measurements of an ionosonde chain in China
Although the electron density profiles (EDPs) from Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) measurement have been validated by ionosonde data at a number of locations during the solar minimum period, the performance of COSMIC measurements at different latitu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2014-10-01
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| Series: | Annales Geophysicae |
| Online Access: | https://www.ann-geophys.net/32/1311/2014/angeo-32-1311-2014.pdf |
| Summary: | Although the electron density profiles (EDPs) from Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere,
and Climate (COSMIC) measurement have been validated by ionosonde data at a number of locations during the solar
minimum period, the performance of COSMIC measurements at different latitudes
has not been well evaluated, particularly during the solar maximum period. In
this paper the COSMIC ionospheric peak parameters (peak electron density of
the F region – <i>Nm</i>F2; peak height of the F region – <i>hm</i>F2) are
validated by the ionosonde data from an observation chain in China during the
solar maximum period of 2011–2013. The validations show that the COSMIC
measurement generally agrees well with the ionosonde observation. The error
in <i>Nm</i>F2 from COSMIC and ionosonde measurements varies with latitude.
At midlatitude stations, the differences between COSMIC <i>Nm</i>F2s and
those of ionosondes are very slight. However, COSMIC <i>Nm</i>F2
overestimates (underestimates) that of the ionosonde at the north (south) of
the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) crest. The relative errors of
<i>hm</i>F2s are much lower than those of <i>Nm</i>F2s at all stations,
which indicates the EDP retrieval algorithm of the COSMIC measurement has a
better performance in determining the ionospheric peak height. The root mean
square errors (RMSEs) of <i>Nm</i>F2s (<i>hm</i>F2s) are higher (lower)
during the daytime than during the nighttime at all stations. Correlation
analysis shows that the correlations for both <i>Nm</i>F2s and
<i>hm</i>F2s are comparably good (correlation coefficients > 0.9) at midlatitude stations, while correlations of <i>Nm</i>F2 (correlation
coefficients > 0.9) are higher than those of <i>hm</i>F2 (correlation
coefficients > 0.8) at low-latitude stations. |
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| ISSN: | 0992-7689 1432-0576 |