Interpre: a Windows software for semiautomatic scaling of ionospheric parameters from ionograms

Abstract

By analysing an ionogram several important parameters like foF2 and MUF(3000)F2 can be found, that have a significant role in the studies concerning ionospheric physics and related phenomena. Furthermore, the observation of ionospheric plasma and the forecasting of physical phenomena connected to the Sun-Magnetosphere–Ionosphere–Thermosphere system holds a remarkable scientific interest with respect to space weather, because of the influence that these phenomena have on satellite and terrestrial communications. From this point of view, the development of models whose input are real-time ionospheric parameters has become fundamental. This paper will introduce a Visual Basic program for semi-automatic scaling of ionospheric parameters from ionograms. This software allows to increase the speed of the scaling phase performed by the operator trying also to improve the output in terms of reliability.