Ionospheric electron density modelling using B-splines and constraint optimization

Abstract

Abstract  Many modern applications, such as precise point positioning, autonomous driving or precision agriculture would benefit significantly if a high-precision and high-resolution model of electron density in the ionosphere and the plasmasphere would be globally available. Since the development of such a model still relies on data with insufficient and uneven global coverage, the consideration of background information and the introduction of equality and inequality constraints on Chapman key parameters are essential. In this work, we develop a multi-layer Chapman model based on B-spline expansions of selected key parameters of the electron density. The unknown series coefficients of the key parameters are subject to equality and inequality constraints. Finally, the developed model is applied to a combination of real and semi-simulated input data; the results are validated through ionosonde measurements. Graphical Abstract