Use of the International Reference Ionosphere 2012 model to calculate emission frequency scale of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator

Abstract

We apply the IRI-2012 version of the International Reference Ionosphere model to calculate the difference between frequencies of adjacent harmonics (frequency scale) of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator (IAR) emission. The calculated values are compared with the frequency scale data obtained from search-coil magnetometer measurements. To obtain satisfactory results, it appeared necessary to modify the IRI-2012 model by replacing the vertical profile of ionospheric parameters adopted in the standard model with the profile elongated along the magnetic field lines. Subsequent improvement was obtained through the model correction by using local f 0 F 2 measurements. Finally, our results showed strong correlation between estimated and measured values of frequency scale with the root-mean-square error of 0.14 Hz, or 15%.