High-latitude ionospheric scintillation model for GISM

Abstract

The Global Ionospheric Scintillation Model (GISM) [1] is planned to operate as an ionospheric scintillation modelling and prediction tool as part of the Ionospheric Monitoring and Prediction Center (IMPC) services at DLR. Currently, the GSM model is only able to cover the low-latitude regions and our efforts are focused on extending the model to high and polar latitudes. For this purpose, we use the recently developed method of phase gradient screens, which allows to simulate the refractive type of scintillation caused by scattering on strong ionospheric gradients [2]. The climatology of the required gradient field will be derived from the in-situ electron density measurements on board the Swarm satellites, which cover a period of 10 years of data collection. Anther ionospheric gradient field is derived from the ROTI (Rate of Change of TEC Index) measurements at high latiudes. In this context, the method of empirical orthogonal functions has been used to relate the gradient values to the relevant driving parameters such as solar flux index, solar wind coupling parameter, geomagnetic field strength, etc. We present some recent results on high latitude scintillation modelling and validation studies.