Radio occultation electron density profiles from the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites over the Brazilian region: A comparison with Digisonde data

This study aims to validate the electron density profiles from the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites with data from Digisondes in Brazil during the low solar activity period of the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. Data from three Brazilian Digisondes located in Cachoeira Paulista (22.7°S, 45°W), São Luís (2.5°S, 44.2°W) and Fortaleza (3.8°S, 38°W) were used in the comparisons. Only the profiles whose density peak have been obtained near the stations coordinates were chosen for the comparison. Although there is generally good agreement, some cases of discrepancies are observed. Some of these discrepancies cannot be explained simply by the differences in the position and local time of the measurements made by the satellite and the ground-based station. In such cases it is possible that local conditions, such as the presence of a trans-equatorial wind or electron density gradients, could contribute to the observed differences. Comparison of the F2 layer peak parameters, the NmF2 and hmF2, obtained from the two techniques showed that, in general, the agreement for NmF2 is pretty good and the NmF2 has a better correlation than hmF2. Cachoeira Paulista had the worst correlation for hmF2 possibly because this station is situated in the region under the influence of the equatorial ionization anomaly, a region where it is more difficult to apply the RO technique without violating the spherical symmetry condition.