Method of the HF wave absorption evaluation based on GIRO network data

High frequency (HF) communication is strongly dependent on the state of the ionosphere, which specifies the mode structure of the radio wave propagating in ionosphere. Another core factor defining the strength of the HF signal at the receiving site is the ionospheric absorption. Accurate modelling the effect of absorption is an essential part of many studies of the HF propagation in the ionosphere.This paper proposes a method for estimating the absorption. The method is based on analysis of vertical sounding ionograms. The main idea of the approach is to compare the main parameters retrieved from measured and simulated ionograms. The combination of Global Ionospheric Radio Observatory (GIRO, http://giro.uml.edu) data and ionograms modelling allows for developing the empiric absorption model available at near real-time. The ionogram simulation taking into account absorption utilizes the NIM-RT (North Ionospheric Model and Ray Tracing) software. As a result, the proposed technique provides more reliable and accurate evaluation of minimum frequency at which echoes are observed in vertical incidence ionosonde soundings. The values of these frequencies should be used in the following simulation to optimize parameters in the empirical formulae for defining absorption HF wave in ionosphere.The ultimate objective of this work is the designing the method, which allows the simulating of HF radio channel accounting for regular absorption due to UV radiation of the Sun. Eventually it could be considered as some kind of the HF propagation forecasting.