SWACI - Vertical Electron Density Profiles

SWACI is a research project of DLR supported by the State Government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Radio signals, transmitted by modern communication and navigation systems may be heavily disturbed by space weather hazards. Thus, severe temporal and spatial changes of the electron density in the ionosphere may significantly degrade the signal quality of various radio systems which even may lead to a complete loss of the signal. By providing specific space weather information, in particular now- and forecast of the ionospheric state, the accuracy and reliability of impacted communication and navigation systems shall be improved. GPS radio occultation measurements onboard geo research satellites such as CHAMP and GRACE are used for retrieving vertical electron density profiles of the ionosphere. At present, only GPS measurements from GRACE are available. These data are routinely provided by GFZ Potsdam. Thus, the derived electron density profiles retrieved in SWACI are a common data product of DLR and GFZ Potsdam. Users are asked to acknowledge this in a proper way.