Improvement of international reference ionospheric model total electron content maps: a case study using artificial neural network in Egypt

Abstract An essential ionosphere parameter that can be applied for ionosphere corrections in radio systems is the ionosphere’s total electron content (TEC). TEC is a crucial parameter for ionospheric correction in the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) of positioning, navigation, and radio science. This study uses the artificial neural network (ANN) application to improve the International Reference Ionospheric Model (IRI-2016) TEC maps across Egypt. The study period is based on the data that were accessible between 2013 and 2020. The ANN model input parameters are (year, day, hour, latitude, and longitude). The ANN1 and ANN2 estimate TEC values of the enhanced IRI-2020 and IRI-2016 according to the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), respectively. ANN3 and ANN4 estimate TEC values of the enhanced IRI-2020 and IRI-2016 regarding IGS stations data analyzed by GNSS Analysis software for the multi-constellation and multi-frequency Precise Positioning (GAMP) model, respectively. The ANN model’s validations were based on the root mean square error (RMSE), correlation coefficient (CC), and T-test. According to the results, the suggested ANN can accurately predict the TEC over Egypt. In comparison to the IRI model, the TEC maps that the ANN models produced are significantly more in accordance with the related CODE and GAMP TEC maps. These results demonstrate that the developed approach can enhance IRI 2016 and IRI-2020s ability to estimate global TEC maps. For the ANN1 model, the mean CC and RMSE are 0.92, and 5.15 TECU for all the global data sets compared by CODE. On the other hand, the CC and RMSE between IRI-2020 and CODE are 0.847 and 7.67 TECU. For the ANN2, the mean CC and RMSE are 0.87, 5.59 TECU compared by CODE, respectively. Although the CC and RMSE between IRI-2016 and CODE are 0.820 and 9.052 TECU respectively. For the ANN3, the CC and RMSE are 0.830 and 4.87 TECU compared with GAMP for all global data, respectively. On the other hand, the CC and RMSE between IRI-2020 and GAMP are 0.644 and 10.41, respectively. For the ANN4 the CC and RMSE are 0.82, and 5.95 TECU compared with GAMP, respectively. Although the CC and RMSE between IRI-2016 and GAMP are 0.665 and 12.347 TECU respectively.