Bayesian Approaches for Non-Linear Ionosphere Modelling - Concept and Strategies

Tomography is a well-known procedure for determining the distribution of a physical quantity from a set of path integrals through the region containing the unknown distribution. This inverse procedure is commonly used for medical imaging, oceanic and geological surveying, and more recently ionospheric characterization. However, in contrast to medical applications the ionospheric tomography must be performed with relatively few measurements. We apply a physics-motivated approach, i.e. we introduce for the electron density profile Ne (h) a mathematical function which describes the height-dependency as „good as possible“, but also in a simple and interpretable manner. To be more specific, we apply a Multi-Layer-Chapman model to represent the electron distribution along the height. Hence, for each layer of the ionosphere Chapman-functions depending on the values Nm as the maximum electron density of each layer, hm as the altitude of the maximum electron density and the scale height H describe the electron density.