A computational tool for ionosonde CADIʹs ionogram analysis

The purpose of this work is to present a new computational tool for ionogram generated with a Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI). This new tool uses the fuzzy relation paradigm to identify the F trace and from this form extract the parameters foF2, h′F, and hpF2. The tool was very extensively tested with ionosondes that operate at low latitudes and near the equatorial region. The ionograms used in this work were recorded at São José dos Campos (23.2° S, 45.9° W; dip latitude 17.6° S) and Palmas (10.2° S, 48.2° W; dip latitude 5.5° S). These automatically extracted ionospheric parameters were compared with those obtained manually and a good agreement was found. The developed tool will greatly expedite and standardize ionogram processing. Therefore, this new tool will facilitate exchange of information among many groups that operate ionosondes of the CADI type, and will be very helpful for space weather purposes.