edu.ucar.opensky::articles:24834 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T23:02:50.115760 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7c53qbk https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.2.3.2019.004 https Related Dataset #1 CH-ME-3-MAG - CHAMP 1 Hz Combined Magnetic Field Time Series (Level 3) Intercalibration of the plasma density measurements in Earth's topside ionosphere 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7c53qbk https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JA029334 Smirnov, A. author Shprits, Y. author Zhelavskaya, I. author Lühr, H. author Xiong, C. author Goss, A. author Prol, F. S. author Schmidt, M. author Hoque, M. author Pedatella, Nicholas M. author Szabó-Roberts, M. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Over the last 20 years, a large number of instruments have provided plasma density measurements in Earth's topside ionosphere. To utilize all of the collected observations for empirical modeling, it is necessary to ensure that they do not exhibit systematic differences and are adjusted to the same reference frame. In this study, we compare satellite plasma density observations from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP), Swarm, and Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) missions. Electron densities retrieved from GRACE K-Band Ranging (KBR) system, previously shown to be in excellent agreement with incoherent scatter radar (ISR) measurements, are used as a reference. We find that COSMIC radio occultation (RO) densities are highly consistent with GRACE-KBR observations showing a mean relative difference of <2%, and therefore no calibration factors between them are necessary. We utilize the outstanding three-dimensional coverage of the topside ionosphere by the COSMIC mission to perform conjunction analysis with in situ density observations from CHAMP, C/NOFS, and Swarm missions. CHAMP measurements are lower than COSMIC by similar to 11%. Swarm densities are generally lower at daytime and higher at nighttime compared to COSMIC. C/NOFS ion densities agree well with COSMIC, with a relative bias of similar to 7%. The resulting cross-calibration factors, derived from the probability distribution functions, help to eliminate the systematic leveling differences between the data sets, and allow using these data jointly in a large number of ionospheric applications. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation