Abstract

The Earth’s ionosphere affects the propagation of signals from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Due to the non-uniform coverage of available observations and complicated dynamics of the region, developing accurate models of the ionosphere has been a long-standing challenge. Here, we present a Neural network-based model of Electron density in the Topside ionosphere (NET), which is constructed using 19 years of GNSS radio occultation data. The NET model is tested against in situ measurements from several missions and shows excellent agreement with the observations, outperforming the state-of-the-art International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model by up to an order of magnitude, especially at 100-200 km above the F2-layer peak. This study provides a paradigm shift in ionospheric research, by demonstrating that ionospheric densities can be reconstructed with very high fidelity. The NET model depicts the effects of numerous physical processes governing the topside dynamics and can have wide applications in ionospheric research.

Details

Title
A novel neural network model of Earth’s topside ionosphere
Author
Smirnov, Artem 1 ; Shprits, Yuri 2 ; Prol, Fabricio 3 ; Lühr, Hermann 4 ; Berrendorf, Max 5 ; Zhelavskaya, Irina 4 ; Xiong, Chao 6 

 Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany (GRID:grid.23731.34) (ISNI:0000 0000 9195 2461); University of Potsdam, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Potsdam, Germany (GRID:grid.11348.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0942 1117) 
 Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany (GRID:grid.23731.34) (ISNI:0000 0000 9195 2461); University of Potsdam, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Potsdam, Germany (GRID:grid.11348.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 0942 1117); University of California Los Angeles, Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, USA (GRID:grid.19006.3e) (ISNI:0000 0000 9632 6718) 
 Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), National Land Survey of Finland (NLS), Department of Navigation and Positioning, Kirkkonummi, Finland (GRID:grid.434062.7) (ISNI:0000 0001 0791 6570); Institute for Solar-Terrestrial Physics, German Aerospace Center, Neustrelitz, Germany (GRID:grid.7551.6) (ISNI:0000 0000 8983 7915) 
 Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany (GRID:grid.23731.34) (ISNI:0000 0000 9195 2461) 
 Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Institute of Informatics, Munich, Germany (GRID:grid.5252.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 973X) 
 Wuhan University, Department of Space Physics, College of Electronic Information, Wuhan, China (GRID:grid.49470.3e) (ISNI:0000 0001 2331 6153) 
Pages
1303
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2768951698
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.