Global mapping of hourly TEC and ionospheric critical parameters by using IRI-plas optimization

Ionosphere, which plays an important role in both High Frequency and satellite communication, can be described by Total Electron Content (TEC), and critical layer parameters in frequency (fo) and peak height (hm). International Reference Ionosphere Extended to Plasmasphere (IRI-Plas), is a convenient empirical deterministic model of ionosphere and plasmasphere. In this study, IRI-Plas is modified through an optimization algorithm, where hourly Global Ionospheric Maps (GIM), are used as the control variable. The optimization algorithm, IRI-Plas-Opt, minimizes the difference between the GIM-TEC and the IRI-Plas TEC with Non-linear Least SQuare (NLSQ) and changes F2 layer critical frequency and peak height values that are input to IRI-Plas. The optimization algorithm is performed on all grid points of the hourly GIM and high resolution ionospheric parameters are obtained. The globals maps of IRI-Plas-Opt reflect the current state of ionospheric parameters and therefore enables the investigation of ionosphere and plasmasphere during a geomagnetic storm.