Contribution of the International Reference Ionosphere-2016 Model in the Evidence of the Winter Anomaly

This study is a contribution to the estimation of the winter anomaly in the F2 layer of the ionosphere at low latitudes. The aim is to study the variability of the virtual height (hmF2) of the F2 region of the ionosphere through the predictions of the latest International Reference Ionosphere model (IRI-2016). The present work allows analyzing the temporal evolution of hmF2 according to the different phases of three (3) solar cycles during the quiet geomagnetic activity to estimate the seasonal anomaly at the Ouagadougou station. The analysis of the seasonal profiles shows that the variability of hmF2 is: 1) strongly linked to the solar cycle activity, 2) dependent on the season and 3) variable from one cycle to the next for the same phase. It appears that hmF2 increases during the ascending phase to reach its maximum value at the phase maximum. During the descending phase, it decreases until the phase minimum where it finds its minimum value. The difference between winter and summer on the hmF2 values for each phase of the cycle is obtained at the phase minimum and is estimated to be at least 16 km. In low latitudes, solar irradiation is greater in summer than in winter. From this study, hmF2 values are larger in winter compared to summer indicating an anomaly in the virtual height of the F2 layer of the ionosphere through the predictions of IRI-2016 at the Ouagadougou station.