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Scotto, Carlo
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Scotto, Carlo
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carlo.scotto@ingv.it
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76 results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 76
- PublicationUnknownThunderstorm-related variations in the sporadic E layer around Rome(2015-01)
; ; ; ; ; ;Barta, V. ;Pietrella, M. ;Scotto, C. ;Bencze, P. ;Satori, G.; ; ; ; Superposed epoch analysis (SEA) was used to study possibly statistically significant variations of the critical frequency (foEs) and virtual height (h’Es) of the sporadic E layer (Es) related to thunderstorm activity generated in the troposphere. The reference time for the SEA was the time of lightning strokes measured by theWorldWide Lightning Location Network at the ionosonde station of Rome (41.9◦N, 12.5◦E) during the year 2009. The results obtained reveal that: (a) a statistically significant decrease of foEs after the time of lightnings has been found for time windows of ±100 h; (b) the effects of thunderstorms on the ionosphere is larger when the thunderstorm approaches from the opposite direction to the mean neutral stratosphere–mesosphere wind flow; (c). a statistically significant decrease of foEs related to thunderstorms during nighttime was observed. No significant changes in foEs and hEs over the seasonal time scale as well as in the latter parameter in the three (a–c) cases related to thunderstorms.194 2 - PublicationOpen AccessAutoscala: an aid for different ionosondes(2010-06)
; ; ; ; ;Pezzopane, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Scotto, C.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Tomasik, L. ;Krasheninnikov, I.; ; ;Autoscala is a software to automatically scale ionospheric characteristics from an ionogram. Initially it was only applied to the ionograms recorded by the AIS-INGV ionosondes installed at Rome (41.8N, 12.5E), Gibilmanna (37.9N, 14.0E), Italy, and Tucumán (26.9S, 294.6E), Argentina, that are not able to record the polarization of the received echo. Recently Autoscala was also applied to the ionograms recorded by the AIS-Parus ionosonde installed at Moscow (55.5N, 37.3E), Russia, that is not able to tag the received echo in terms of polarization, and by the VISRC2 ionosonde installed at Warsaw (52.2N, 21.1E), Poland, that is instead able to perform the polarization tagging of the ordinary and extraordinary echoes. This work shows different examples of processing performed on ionograms recorded by all these three different types of ionosondes.372 633 - PublicationRestrictedImprovements in bottomside electron density definition in the Autoscala programSome improvements introduced in the Autoscala program are presented. They include improvements in E valley modeling of the electron density profile Ne(h), and in the link between the E valley and bottom-side F regions. An abrupt variation in Ne(h) generated by the previous version of Autoscala under night conditions has been eliminated. A series of ionograms recorded by the Millstone Hill digisonde (42.6°, 288.5°) were automatically interpreted by the previous version of Autoscala and by the new one. Data from Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) were used to comparatively assess the performance of the two versions. For this purpose, the root mean square errors (RMSEs) of the Ne(h) provided by Autoscala were calculated relative to the corresponding values provided by ISR. A more accurate overall modeling of Ne(h) was achieved by the new Autoscala version (RMSE = 0.51 MHz for the new version against RMSE = 0.67 MHz for the previous one).
271 6 - PublicationOpen AccessClimatology of Spread F over Tucumán from Massive Statistical Analysis of Autoscaled DataAutomatic ionogram interpretation methods developed for real-time ionospheric monitoring can be applied in retrospective studies to analyze large quantities of data. The Autoscala software, implemented for such a purpose, includes a routine for automatic detection of diffused echoes known as spread F, which appear in ionograms due to the presence of ionospheric irregularities along the radio signal path. The main objective of this routine is to reject bad quality ionograms. This new capability was used in a climatological study including a large number of ionograms recorded at the low-latitude ionospheric station of Tucumán (26.9° S, 294.6° E, magnetic latitude 15.5° S, Argentina). The study took into account different levels of geomagnetic and solar activity from 2012 to 2020. The results demonstrate the capability of Autoscala to capture the main signature characteristics of spread F and the temporal evolution of the ionosphere peak heigh hmF2, capturing the post-sunset plasma surge that precedes development of spread F. Maximum occurrence of spread F is observed in local summer, with a tendency to shift before midnight with increasing solar activity. Other new climatological details that emerged from the study are illustrated and briefly discussed, dealing with connection with geomagnetic activity, and morning hmF2 behavior after extremely marked nighttime spread F occurrence.
223 25 - PublicationRestrictedThe COMPLEIK subroutine of the IONORT-ISP system for calculating the non-deviative absorption: A comparison with the ICEPAC formula(2014-01-15)
; ; ; ; ; ; ;Settimi, A.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Pietrella, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Pezzopane, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Zolesi, B.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Bianchi, C.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Scotto, C.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia; ; ; ; ; The present paper proposes to discuss the ionospheric absorption, assuming a quasi-flat layered ionospheric medium, with small horizontal gradients. A recent complex eikonal model [Settimi et al., 2013b] is applied, useful to calculate the absorption due to the ionospheric D-layer, which can be approximately characterized by a linearized analytical profile of complex refractive index, covering a short range of heights between h1= 50 km and h2= 90 km. Moreover, Settimi et al. [2013c] have already compared the complex eikonal model for the D-layer with the analytical Chapman’s profile of ionospheric electron density; the corresponding absorption coefficient is more accurate than Rawer’s theory [1976] in the range of middle critical frequencies. Finally, in this paper, the simple complex eikonal equations, in quasi-longitudinal (QL) approximation, for calculating the non-deviative absorption coefficient due to the propagation across the D-layer are encoded into a so called COMPLEIK (COMPLex EIKonal) subroutine of the IONORT (IONOspheric Ray-Tracing) program [Azzarone et al., 2012]. The IONORT program, which simulates the three-dimensional (3-D) ray-tracing for high frequencies (HF) waves in the ionosphere, runs on the assimilative ISP (IRI-SIRMUP-P) discrete model over the Mediterranean area [Pezzopane et al., 2011]. As main outcome of the paper, the simple COMPLEIK algorithm is compared to the more elaborate semi-empirical ICEPAC formula [Stewart, undated], which refers to various phenomenological parameters such as the critical frequency of E-layer. COMPLEIK is reliable just like the ICEPAC, with the advantage of being implemented more directly. Indeed, the complex eikonal model depends just on some parameters of the electron density profile, which are numerically calculable, such as the maximum height.20888 560 - PublicationRestrictedThe effect of collisions in ionogram inversion(2013)
; ; ;Scotto, C.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Settimi, A.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia; The results of this paper demonstrate that the effect of collisions on the group refraction index is small, when the ordinary ray is considered. If, however, in order to improve the performance of a system for automatic interpretation of ionograms, the information contained in ordinary and extraordinary traces is combined, the effect of collisions between the electrons and neutral molecules should be taken into account for the extraordinary ray. The magnitude of these differences is generally very small and must be compared with the resolution in the virtual vertical height of the ionosonde, resolution which is typically of the order of few kilometers.381 35 - PublicationRestrictedNeQuick2 and IRI2012 models applied to mid and high latitudes, and the Antarctic ionosphere(2017-01)
; ; ; ; ; ; ;Pietrella, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Nava, B.; The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics Strada Costiera 11. I-34051, Trieste, Italy ;Pezzopane, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Migoya Orue, Y.; The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics Strada Costiera 11. I-34051, Trieste, Italy ;Ippolito, A.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Scotto, C.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia; ; ; ; ; Within the framework of the AUSPICIO (AUtomatic Scaling of Polar Ionograms and Co-operative Ionospheric Observations) project, a limited sample of ionograms recorded mostly in 2001 and 2009, and to a lesser extent in 2006–07 and 2012–15, at the ionospheric observatories of Hobart and MacquarieIsland (mid-latitude), Comandante FerrazandLivingstoneIsland(high latitude),andCasey, Mawson, Davis and Scott Base (inside the Antarctic Polar Circle (APC)) were considered to study the capability of the NeQuick2 and IRI2012 models for predicting the behaviour of the ionosphere at mid- and high latitudes and over the Antarctic area. The applicability of NeQuick2 and IRI2012 was evaluated as i) climatological models taking as input the F 10.7 solar activity index and ii) assimilative models ingesting the foF2 and hmF2 measurements obtained from the electron density profiles provided bytheAdaptiveIonosphericProfiler(AIP). Thestatisticalanalysisresults reveal thatthe bestdescription of the ionosphere’s electron density is achieved when the AIP measurements are ingested into the NeQuick2 and IRI2012 models. Moreover, NeQuick2 performance is far better than IRI2012 performance outside the APC. Conversely, the IRI2012 model performs better than the NeQuick2 model inside the APC.309 7 - PublicationOpen AccessAutoscala applied at the Ionospheric Station of Warsaw(2008-10-17)
; ; ; ; ;Pezzopane, M.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Scotto, C.; Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Roma2, Roma, Italia ;Juchnikowski, G.; Space Research Center, Warsaw, Poland ;Stanislawska, I.; Space Research Center, Warsaw, Poland; ; ; A new ionosonde VISRC2, built at the Space Research Center of Warsaw, Poland, was installed at Warsaw (52.2 N, 21.1 E) in march 2007. The main characteristics of this ionosonde are: transmitted power 10 kW, pulse duration 100 μs, sampling period 5 μs, frequency resolution 25 kHz, and capability to distinguish ordinary and extraordinary reflections. This ionosonde, able to record the sounding only as a binary file, was not equipped with a tool to perform an automatic scaling of the recorded trace. From October 2008 Autoscala (Pezzopane and Scotto, 2005, 2007, 2008; Scotto and Pezzopane, 2007) is routinely applied to the ionograms recorded by this ionosonde.522 268 - PublicationUnknownTriple splitting and z-rays in polar ionogramsThe theory of propagation in a direction almost parallel to the Earth’s magnetic field is reviewed, calculating the group refractive index of the ordinary ray in the presence of electron-neutral collisions. An electron density profile is estimated from the ordinary trace and is used to compute the z-ray trace. It is shown that this reconstruction can help to identify the rare cases of z-rays from among the numerous cases of duplicate ordinary traces, due to reflection from two different directions. Received 13 June 2014, accepted 10 December 2014
130 3 - PublicationOpen AccessA regional adaptive and assimilative 3D ionospheric model(2015-05-18)
; ; ; ; ; A regional adaptive and assimilative three-dimensional (3D) ionospheric model is proposed. It is able to ingest real-time data from different ionosondes, providing the ionospheric bottomside plasma frequency fp over the Italian area. The model is constructed on the basis of empirical values for a set of ionospheric parameters Pi[base] over the considered region, some of which are assigned a variation Pi. The values for the ionospheric parameters actually observed at a given time at a given site will thus be Pi= Pi[base]+ΔPi. These Pi values are used as input of an electron density N(h) profiler. The latter is derived from the Advanced Ionospheric Profiler (AIP), which is software used by Autoscala as part of the process of automatic inversion of ionogram traces. The 3D model ingests ionosonde data by minimizing the root-mean-square deviation between the observed and modeled values of fp(h) profiles obtained from the associated N(h) values at the points where observations are available. The Pi values are obtained through such a minimization procedure. The 3D model is tested using data collected at the ionospheric stations of Rome (41.8 N, 12.5 E) and Gibilmanna (37.9 N, 14.0 E), and then comparing the results against data from the ionospheric station of San Vito dei Normanni (40.6 N, 18.0 E). The software developed is able to produce maps of the critical frequencies foF2 and foF1, and of fp at a fixed altitude, with transverse and longitudinal cross-sections of the bottomside ionosphere in a color scale. fp(h) and associated simulated ordinary ionogram traces can easily be produced for any geographic location within the Italian region. fp values within the volume in question can be also provided.84 13