Study on the Optimal Height of Ionospheric Thin Layer Based on Scintillation Phase Screen Model

In the modeling of ionospheric scintillation analysis, the irregular layer causing scintillation is regarded as a single thin layer structure. In civil aviation, the scintillation modeling error caused by the regional change of the height of this thin layer directly affects the subsequent test of receiver performance. In order to improve the accuracy of scintillation modeling, a method for optimizing the height of ionospheric thin layer is proposed. This method uses the relationship between the height of ionospheric thin layer and the change rate of the total electron content of the ionosphere in the modeling, and determines the optimal height of thin layer in different regions by comparing the estimated value and the reference value of the change rate of the total electron content. The proposed method is analyzed and verified by the peak height of electron density and the measured scintillation index data. The experimental results show that the optimized thin layer height value conforms to the actual change and makes the simulated scintillation size more accurate.