Real-time reconstruction of the vertical electron density distribution from GPS TEC measurements

Presented is a new operational model for real-time reconstruction of the vertical electron density distribution from concurrent GPS-based total electron content and ionosonde measurements. The model is developed on the basis of a novel approach for deducing the topside ion scale heights assuming Exponential, Epstein, or Chapman type of vertical density distribution. The required input data are submitted on-line to an operational centre where processing is carried out immediately and the electron density profile is derived. The method is suitable for use at middle and high latitude locations where ionosonde measurements are available. Several tests have been carried out and preliminary results have been presented and discussed.