부산대학교 도서관

Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar (ISR) noontime $h_{\mathrm {m}}\text{F}_{2}$ observations in the (2000–2016) period have been used to test the thermospheric parameters from ionosonde observations (THERION) method. The input parameters apart from the standard indices of solar F 10.7 and geomagnetic $A_{\mathrm {p}}$ activity include noontime $f_{o}\text{F}_{2}$ and plasma frequency at 180-km height read from the $f_{p}(h)$ height profiles scaled from the ionograms with the Autoscala program. The THERION method provides a self-consistent set of the main aeronomic parameters responsible for the mid-latitude daytime ionospheric F-region formation, $h_{\mathrm {m}}\text{F}_{2}$ in particular. Overall, 60 dates under various solar and geomagnetic activity levels have been used for the analysis. The retrieved $h_{\mathrm {m}}\text{F}_{2}$ values demonstrate a standard deviation of 10.6 km, and this is close to the expected inaccuracy of $h_{\mathrm {m}}\text{F}_{2}$ determination with the Millstone Hill ISR. The correlation coefficient between the retrieved and the observed $h_{\mathrm {m}}\text{F}_{2}$ is 0.937 ± 0.051, which is significant at the confidence level >99.9%. The undertaken analysis has confirmed the earlier obtained conclusion on the possibility to extract the main aeronomic parameters from the routine ionosonde observations with the THERION method.