Use of raytracing in models to investigate ionospheric channel performance

The main parameters that characterize an ionospheric channel, frequency, elevation angle, group path, ground range, and apogee have been obtained by means of 2D raytracing program called abcray03. The analysis has considered different hourly ionospheric conditions for four quiet days (25–28 March 2000) and five geographic locations distributed in the two hemispheres. Electron density profiles define the selected ionospheric conditions. Raytracing is run considering experimental electron density profiles from manually scaled measurements obtained with ionosondes. The resulting radio propagation parameters are compared with those obtained using the IRI and NeQuick models driven by measured F2 peak values.