Double-Crest Matérn Modeling of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly Using PSO
11th International Conference on Recent Advances in Air and Space Technologies, Conference Program, RAST 2026, İstanbul, Türkiye, 13 - 15 Mayıs 2026, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
- Doi Numarası: 10.1109/rast69551.2026.11672390
- Basıldığı Şehir: İstanbul
- Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA), Global Ionospheric Map (GIM), Matérn function, Parameter Estimation, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
- Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) is one of the most pronounced structures of the low-latitude ionosphere and plays a key role in the performance of satellite communication and navigation systems. This study proposes a robust parameter estimation framework in which the Northern and Southern crests of EIA are modeled using a three-dimensional Matérn function family defined over latitude, longitude, and time, with parameters estimated via Particle Swarm Optimization. The estimation framework incorporates physically motivated parameter constraints and statistically informed initialization strategy to construct optimized initial particle distributions. Application of the proposed framework to bi-hourly monthly- median Global Ionospheric Map (GIM) observations grouped by solar activity demonstrates that the proposed framework accurately reconstructs the EIA morphology. For the analyzed monthly-median GIM of April at 0000 UT under Moderate Solar Activity (MSA), the framework achieves a Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) of approximately 4%. These results confirm that the framework provides an excellent and comprehensive representation of both the Northern and Southern EIA crests, offering a scalable and physically interpretable methodology for converting GIM observations into compact parametric representations of the EIA.