Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation is to present a methodology for determining the values of the height of the peak electron density of the ionospheric F2 region in quite conditions. The dependence of the entire ionosphere on the level of solar activity, which is one of the main factors in empirical modeling of the ionosphere, is well known. To analyze the relationship between hmF2 and solar activity represented by F107, a regression analysis was performed by months.The results show that the optimal dependence is close to linear. As a result, an empirical median model for predicting hmF2 for the territory of the city of Rome- Italy, depending on solar activity, the season and universal time, is purposed. In the concluding part, this study also presents examples of the model`s performance in selected months. The resulting errors are respectively mean error ME=0.000km and root mean square error RMSE = 11.068km, which is accurate enough for practical purposes such a radio paths prediction. The choice of this ionospheric station is related to the fact that this station is located at the geographic latitude coinciding with the latitude of Sofia, which suggests similar characteristics of the ionosphere and applicability of the results for the territory of Bulgaria.