Multiple quasi-parabolic presentation of the IRI profile Original Research Article

The paper describes the representation of any given density profile with multiple quasi-parabolic (QP) segments and the technique is applied to IRI profiles. An optimization method is introduced that automatically finds the segment boundaries and minimizes the number of segments for a specified fitting accuracy. This representation of the profiles makes it possible to use analytical ray tracing techniques for ionospheric radio wave propagation studies. The Lowell Digisondes now provide the multiple QP profiles in real time as an additional output.