Comparison of a new global empirical ion composition model with available satellite data Original Research Article

An improved empirical model of global ion composition in the outer ionosphere based on data sets from ion mass spectrometers onboard the ACTIVE and AE satellites (Třísková et al., 2002b) is compared with available data measured on board these and several other satellites (ISIS 2, ISS-b, and AEROS A). Our study finds a very good self-consistency of the modeled and the source experimental data, as well as a good agreement of the model densities with other experimental data, better than the models used in IRI-2001. It is shown that the proposed model describes the outer ionosphere ion composition better than the available models used so far. The consistency of data sets from individual satellite missions is discussed and their usability for extension of the data base to construct a more advanced version of this ion composition model is considered.v