A method for the determination of ionospheric vertical profiles through beacon satellite measurements

A method is described for the determination of the parameters of an assumed ionospheric profile from a given measured impulse response function. In the considered examples the measured data are simulated by ray tracing techniques and the least mean square method is applied iteratively to solve the inverse problem. Measurements errors and horizontal dependence of the ionospheric profile are also considered along with the effect of the choice of the starting values of the assumed profile parameters.