Comparative Study of the Electron Density of Physical Model and Medium Frequency Radar in Kunming

This paper study the diurnal variations of electron density in the D regions of the ionosphere in the spring, summer, autumn and winter in the low years of solar activity in Kunming due to the Kunming medium frequency (MF) radar observation data in 2009. It is found electron density in spring and autumn are slightly higher than that in summer and winter. We further compare with the existing physical model and the international ionosphere reference 2016 (IRI-2016) model. The results show that the diurnal variations of electron density have basically the same changing based on the radar data and the model data trends, especially during 10:00-16:00. But there is a difference in magnitude of the electron density value. In addition, radar data and physical models supplement the shortage of IRI model to a certain extent. They well describe the characteristics of the diurnal variation of electron density and its variation with height in the D regions of the ionosphere