The Use of Satellite Radio Tomography Data in The Problems of Estimating The Degree of Perturbation of Ionospheric Plasma

The distributions of the ionospheric plasma reconstructed by the methods of satellite radio tomography are presented. The structural and dynamic peculiarities of the ionosphere during quiet and disturbed conditions are discussed. We present several comparisons illustrating the qualitative consistency between measurements of particle fluxes by DMSP satellites and the corresponding electron density reconstructions by radio tomography. The indices based on the radio tomographic data are developed for quantitatively assessing the degree of perturbation of the ionosphere. The design of the indices takes into account the specificity of the radio tomographic data used for their construction. Their comparison with the indices of geomagnetic activity revealed the high sensitivity of the suggested ionospheric indices to the disturbing geomagnetic factors.