Comparison of ionospheric measurements made by digisondes with those inferred from ultraviolet airglow

In this work we compare ionospheric measurements made at several ionosonde stations with parameters inferred from airglow measurements made by the Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) instrument aboard the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics, and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft. The purpose of this comparison is twofold. First, our study provides a validation of the technique of using TIMED/GUVI airglow measurements to infer nighttime electron densities in F region of the ionosphere. Second, we use the global characterization of the ionosphere provided by TIMED/GUVI to identify potential biases in individual ionosonde station records. We have found for peak electron densities over the range 4.0-11.0×105cm-3 that the GUVI measurements are consistent with the ionosonde observations. We have also found some station to station and regional variations that warrant further study.