[P-EM12] Coupling Processes in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere System

[PEM12-24] High-Resolution 3-D Imaging of Electron Density Perturbations Using GNSS Observations Over Japan

*Weizheng Fu¹, Yuichi Otsuka¹ (1.Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University )

This study introduces a newly developed three-dimensional (3-D) computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT) technique designed to reconstruct electron density perturbations caused by ionospheric disturbances. The CIT technique is facilitated by dense total electron content (TEC) measurements from ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers in Japan. The slant TECs used for tomography consist of two components: the background electron density derived from the IRI-2016 model, and the TEC perturbations obtained through a centered moving average for each line-of-sight slant TEC. Simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of the CIT algorithm, demonstrating high fidelity, with the technique accurately reconstructing over 80% of electron density perturbations. Recently, this method has been successfully applied to investigate different ionospheric phenomena, including traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) driven by acoustic waves, atmospheric gravity waves, or electrodynamic forces, as well as equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) extending to midlatitudes.

Acknowledgements
The GNSS observation data from SoftBank used in this study were provided by SoftBank Corp. and ALES Corp. through the Consortium to utilize the SoftBank original reference sites for Earth and Space Science.