Regional and Local Ionospheric Models Based on Millstone Hill Incoherent Scatter Radar Data

Holt, J. M., Zhang, S.-R and M. J. Buonsanto (1)

Haystack Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Local and regional statistical models to describe Millstone Hill incoherent
scatter radar observations of electron density, electrontemperature and ion
temperature since 1976 are developed using a bin-fit technique. The local
models generate ionospheric variations with localtime, day number, and
altitude from 150-1000 km. The prior day's F107 andthe Ap index from the
previous 3 hour period are keyed inputs to specifysolar and geomagnetic
activity. The regional models have a latitude coverage of
32-55\deg~geodetic and an altitude coverage of 200-600 km.  These
climatology models are capable of reproducing primary ionosphericvariation
features seen in previous studies as well as several newly revealed
features, such as the semiannual variation of electron density.They are
accessible through the World Wide Web at the URL
http://www.openmadrigal.org.