Open AccessArticle Assessment of Polar Ionospheric Observations by VIPIR/Dynasonde at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica: Part 1―Ionospheric Densities

Abstract

Vertical incidence pulsed ionospheric radar (VIPIR) has been operated to observe the polar ion-osphere with Dynasonde analysis software at Jang Bogo Station (JBS), Antarctica since 2017. The JBS-VIPIR-Dynasonde (JVD) provides the ionospheric parameters, such as height profile of elec-tron density with NmF2 and hmF2, ion drift, and ionospheric tilt in the bottomside ionosphere. The JBS (74.6° S, 164.2° E) is located in the polar cap, cusp, or auroral region depending on the geomagnetic activity and local time. In the present study, an initial assessment of the JVD iono-spheric densities is attempted by the comparison with GPS TEC measurements which are simul-taneously obtained from the GPS receiver at JBS during the solar minimum period of 2017？2019. It is found that the JVD NmF2 and bottomside TEC (bTEC) show generally a good correlation with GPS TEC for geomagnetically quiet condition. However, the bTEC seems to be less correlated with the GPS TEC with slightly larger spreads especially during the daytime and in summer, which seems to be associated with the characteristics of the polar ionosphere such as energetic particle precipitations and large density irregularities. It is also found that the Dynasonde analysis seems to show some limitations to handle these characteristics of the polar ionosphere and needs to be improved to produce more accurate ionospheric density profiles especially during disturbed conditions.