Short-term ionospheric forecasting over Europe

An operational forecasting tool for the European region based on continuous monitoring of the ionosphere is available on the World Wide Web for interactive use (http://www.rcru.rl.ac.uk/iono/maps.htm). A network of 23 ground-based vertical incidence ionosondes provides the basic inputs for the region of interest (10/spl deg/W-90/spl deg/E, 30/spl deg/-70/spl deg/N). Measurements of foF2 and M(3000)F2 are sent by e-mail, mainly in the form of URSIGRAM messages as described in ITU-R Recommendation P.313. Data are currently updated every 24 hours, though not all ionosondes provide values over the week-ends. Forecasts and archive measurement maps of the critical frequency foF2 and the maximum usable frequency for a 3000 km range, MUF(3000)F2, are then produced for the area of interest. Comparisons between the maps derived from measured and forecast values have been conducted.