Numerical Prediction of Ionospheric Characteristics

Book excerpt: Numerical methods are developed for producing worldwide, long-term predictions of ionospheric characteristics. The methods are based on analyses of series of coefficients defining numerical maps, which take into account both annual and solar cycle variations of the ionosphere. The end product is a five-dimensional numerical map depending on two geographic coordinates, time of day (universal time), time of year, and solar index. Predicted numerical maps in geographical and universal time coordinates are obtained by specifying the month and a predicted value of solar index. The methods are applied to foF2 monthly medians, using for the analysis a series of 60 numerical maps from January 1954 through December 1958, Predicted and observed values of the characteristics are compared for a large sample of data.