Process for the EIS hmF2 Nowcast Maps

A map of Europe that presents the current level of maximum ionization height (hmF2), developed with data from 4 ionospheric stations. Nowcasts of the hmF2 peak electron density height for the European region are made available with 15 min temporal resolution in the form of maps as images (PNG) and text files (ASCII). The maps cover the European area between -10°W and 40°E in longitude and between 30°N and 72°N in latitude and are provided with 1°x1° spatial resolution. The grid values are estimated through the implementation of Polyweight interpolation procedure, a modification of the “inverse distance to a power” gridding method that calculates parameter values at the grid nodes (Kutiev et al., 2016). The algorithm receives as input real time autoscaled hmF2 values from the DIAS network (Belehaki et al., 2006). The maps are made available through the TechTIDE warning services (Belehaki et al., 2020).