IRI data ingestion and ionospheric tomography

Abstract We present a method by which we combine IRI-95 predictions of electron density with ionospheric tomography data to provide an improved electron density estimate. We discuss the observation that IRI-95 produced ionospheres have a topside description which is too thick when compared to CIT reconstructions. A technique for ionospheric data ingestion is discussed. The algorithm is capable of ingesting GPS, CIT, ionosonde, and ISR data. The method is extensible to other types of data as long as a characterization of the errors can be obtained. We also discuss the study of latitudinal and longitudinal correlation in the ionosphere. Results of this correlation are shown for mid-latitude ionospheres over the Western US.