Performance Evaluation of IRI-Plas 2017 model with Ionosonde Data Measurements of Ionospheric Parameters

Abstract This study presents the performance evaluation of International Reference Ionosphere extended to the plasmasphere (IRI-Plas 2017) model from the Addis Ababa ionosonde station, Ethiopia ionospheric parameters measurement with geographic latitude 9.00o N and longitude 38.70o E; geomagnetic latitude 0.16, geomagnetic longitude 110.44) in selected days of the year 2014. During comparison, hourly and day-to-day variability of ionospheric parameters of the electron density profile, peak electron density (NmF2), peak height (hmF2) and critical frequency (foF2) measurements are consider. In the evaluation of the IRI-Plas 2017 model with the ionosonde data, the percentage deviation and the correlation coefficient (R) is used as the measure of the performance of the IRI-Plas 2017 model. The overall results, show that the IRI-Plas 2017 model mostly overestimates in most altitudes and hours of electron density measurements. The IRI-Plas 2017 model has a good agreement with the ionosonde electron density measurement from 100 km to 200 km altitude and mostly during in between 0:00-06:00 UT and 12:00-18:00 UT hours, while the model biases in other altitudes and hours with overestimate or underestimate in the ionosonde electron density measurements. The IRI-Plas 2017 model has a good correlation during after midnight and around midday hours with about ±2 percentage deviation from the ionosonde electron density measurement. The model has high percentage deviation value of electron density measurements mostly in between altitudes from 200 km to 450 km and during early nighttime and before midnight hours. The IRI-Plas 2017 model measurements of the NmF2, hmF2 and foF2 mostly underestimates from the ionosonde data during the night-time (18:00 UT- 06:00 UT) and overestimates during day-time (06:00 UT-18:00 UT). The IRI-Plas 2017 model measurement of the foF2 values are in a good agreement with the ionosonde result than in hmF2 and NmF2 and the model measurement of the NmF2 values are closer than hmF2.