Highlights Solar and ionospheric proxies have been evaluated for foF2 using IRI-Plas 2020. Mg-II appeared to be the best index for foF2 estimation over the stations under study. The findings may be helpful for operational HF communication support.

    Abstract The present study evaluates the ionospheric and solar proxy indices for the International Reference Ionosphere extended to the Plasmasphere (IRI-Plas 2020) model in predicting the critical frequency of F2-layer ( f o F 2 ) over Pakistan and Japan longitudinal sectors during different solar activity epochs. The f o F 2 values are obtained from the ionosondes installed at Wakkanai (45.39° N, 141.69° E), Kokubunji (35.72° N, 139.48° E), Islamabad (33.71° N, 73.06° E), Okinawa (26.68° N, 128.15° E) & Karachi (24.95° N, 67.14° E) during 1993, 2000 & 2007 representing moderate, high & low solar activity, MSA, HSA and LSA, respectively. The IRI-Plas 2020 estimated f o F 2 values being reported were computed using F10.7, IG, Mg-II and Lyman- α with CCIR coefficients selecting “no extra input” option. The analysis showed that the model performed the best with the solar proxy Mg-II among all other solar and ionospheric indices on the basis of the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between the ionosonde and IRI-Plas estimated f o F 2 values. Such performance evaluation of a global model is important for space weather community to validate ionosonde data by selecting the appropriate index to model f o F 2 in the considered longitudinal sectors. The findings of the study may be used for operation sky wave communication support in the regions under study.


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    Title :

    Evaluation of ionospheric and solar proxy indices for IRI-Plas 2020 model over Pakistan and Japan during different solar activity epochs


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 72 , 12 ; 5551-5562


    Publication date :

    2022-06-18


    Size :

    12 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English