Adaptive Smoothness Constraint Ionospheric Tomography Algorithm

Ionospheric tomography reconstruction based on global navigation satellite system observations is usually an ill-posed problem. To resolve it, an adaptive smoothness constraint ionospheric tomography algorithm is proposed in this work. The new algorithm performs an adaptive adjustment for the constrained weight coefficients of the tomography system. The computational efficiency and the reconstructed quality of ionospheric imaging are improved by using the new algorithm. A numerical simulation experiment was conducted in order to validate the feasibility and superiority of the algorithm. The statistical results of the reconstructed errors and the comparisons of ionospheric profiles confirmed the superiority of the new algorithm. Finally, the new algorithm was successfully applied to reconstruct three-dimensional ionospheric images under geomagnetic quiet and geomagnetic disturbance conditions over Hunan province. The tomographic results are reasonable and consistent with the general behavior of the ionosphere. The positive and negative phase storm effects are found during geomagnetic storm occurrence.