Development of Radiotomography Algorithms for Analyzing the Electron Concentration Field in the Ionosphere
摘要
Ionospheric radiotomography is based on measuring the delay of the electromagnetic GPS signal which appears due to inhomogeneities of electron concentration fields in the ionosphere. The scattering and absorption processes accompanying the propagation of an electromagnetic wave lead to the fact that the radio signal weakens when passing through a cloud of electrons in the ionosphere, and the attenuation is exponential according to Bouguer’s law. The phase delay data of the signal is subsequently used to estimate the total electron content (TEC) in order to apply computational tomography algorithms and image synthesis of electron density. The proposed radiotomography algorithms use TEC data to create two-dimensional images of the ionosphere, which makes it possible to evaluate both the structure and dynamics of the ionosphere. With the development of information technology and an increase in the number of GPS stations, it is expected that radiotomography of the atmosphere, in particular the ionosphere, will become more accurate and informative.