A proposed method for improving the IRI2016 model by means of Swarm over the American Sector during the event of 5-11 September 2017

A new method is proposed for improving the IRI2016 vertical electron density profile by ingesting the in situ Ne values from Swarm A, B and C. The method is validated by comparing the improved electron density profiles with measured full height profiles over three Incoherent Scatter Radar stations in the American sector (Jicamarca, Millstone Hill and Sondrestrom) during the period 5-11 September 2017 covering both quiet and storm days. We considered 90 epochs corresponding to times when one of the Swarm satellites passed near an Incoherent Scatter Radar at a time when the Incoherent Scatter Radar was measuring electron density profiles. The method results in improvements of the electron density profile, as measured in terms of the Root-Mean-Square-Error in 63% of the observed epochs. The fraction of improvements on quiet days is 63% of the observed epochs, while 37% of the improvements occurred on storm days. The change in Root-Mean-Square-Error of the IRI profile compared to the ISR profiles before and after the modification was not dependent on the distance between the observation location and the ISR, nor on the difference between the hmF2 predicted by the IRI and measured by the ISR. (C) 2021 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

A new method is proposed to improve the IRI2016 vertical electron density profile by ingesting in situ Ne values from Swarm A, B and C. Validation of the method showed improvements in 63% of observed epochs, with similar fractions of improvements on quiet and storm days. The change in Root-Mean-Square-Error was not dependent on distance or difference in predicted hmF2.