RION: Realistic Ionosphere

The Realistic Ionosphere (RION) is an Instrument Project of the United Nations (UN) International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI), a program of international cooperation to advance the space weather science. RION provides accurate and prompt nowcast of the 3D global plasma density distribution in the subpeak ionosphere in its variety of dynamic behavior. It includes several coordinated sensing, modeling, and computer science components: (1) Global Ionosphere Radio Observatory (GIRO), https://giro.uml.edu, a network of ionosondes with the real-time data feeds to the data analysis center in Lowell, Massachusetts; (2) IRI-based Real-Time Assimilative Model (IRTAM) for 3D specification of subpeak ionospheric density, https://giro.uml.edu/IRTAM; (3) TID Explorer for nowcast and forecast of traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) based on the Doppler-Frequency-Angular Sounding (FAS) sensing technique between two Digisonde DPS4D instruments, https://backends.giro.uml.edu/tidx/; (4) Skymapping for Local Ionospheric Tilt Evaluateion (Sky-LITE), technology for the wide-angle sensing of the ionospheric plasma structures to determine local tilts of isodensity surfaces in the ionosphere; (5) Ray-Tracing through Realistic Ionosphere eXplorer (RayTRIX), an HF signal raytracing through the ionospheric channel specified by IRTAM, Sky-LITE and TIDx subsystems of RION; and (6) Lowell GIRO Data Center (LGDC), a collection of computer software, database engines, and computer infrastructure for computations associated with RION nowcast and warning services, with open international data access for academia, students, radio enthusiasts, and space weather applications.