A decade of observations from the Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (CHAIN) Ionosondes

Abstract:

The Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (CHAIN) began operations in 2008 by first taking over the management of several Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI) systems and then expanding the network through Phase 1 to include six ionosondes and ten scintillation monitor GNSS receivers [1]. The network was later expanded to its current state comprising ten ionosondes and 28 scintillation monitor GNSS receivers.

This discussion will provide an overview of the CHAIN ionosonde dataset over the past decade and contextualize those observations within the larger observational framework in the Canadian Arctic region, while also discussing the historical ionosonde data record at Resolute dating back to 1949. We will furthermore conduct a detailed analysis of CHAIN CADI data quality, including several different assessments of manually processed data precision and a comprehensive assessment of data accuracy conducted using the local Resolute Incoherent Scatter Radar (RISR). We will here conclude with the release of a cross-validated database of manually scaled, inverted parameters from the CHAIN ionosondes to the community for open use.

References

[1] Jayachandran, P. T., et al. (2009), Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (CHAIN), Radio Sci., 44, RS0A03, doi:10.1029/2008RS004046.

Figure 1. A map of the geographic distribution of CHAIN stations. Red dots correspond to locations with collocated CADI and GNSS receiver systems, black dots correspond to locations with just GNSS receivers, and blue dots correspond to planned expansion stations. Solid and dotted black lines represent 65^oN and 75^oN geomagnetic latitudes, respectively.