Empirical models of the electron concentration of the ionosphere and their value for radio communications purposes

Criteria for the development of ionosphere electron concentration vertical profile empirical models for radio communications purposes are discussed and used to evaluate and compare four contemporary schemes. Schemes must be optimized with respect to quality of profile match, availability and simplicity of the external data required for profile specification, and numerical complexity, depending on the application. It is found that the Dudeney (1978) scheme provides the best general performance, while the Booker (1977) technique is optimized for precision radio wave studies where an observed profile is available. The CCIR (Bradley and Dudeney, 1973) scheme performance is found to be inferior to the previous two, and should be superceded except where mathematical simplicity is prioritized. The International Reference Ionosphere profile is seen to have significant disadvantages with respect to all three criteria. 17 references