The instantaneous ionosphere peak height shift versus relative changes of the critical frequency

We witness progress in processing of climatological ionospheric models in data assimilative mode providing capability for instantaneous monitoring the vertical structure and dynamics of the ionosphere. In most of assimilative scenarios the iterative algorithms are used applied to the background ionosphere model such as the International Reference Ionosphere IRI [1]. Advantage of IRI build up is that its electron density profile is fitted to the F2 layer peak density and height thus the IRI code is automatically linked to measured or modelled NmF2 and hmF2. However, ingestion of GPS-derived total electron content TEC through the ionosphere and plasmasphere is based on iterative algorithms [2].