On the use of modified Taylor diagrams to compare ionospheric assimilation models

Abstract

This paper describes the construction and use of "modified Taylor diagrams" and the comparison of three real-time assimilative ionospheric models. The paper expands on the work by McNamara et al. (2013) and serves as an addendum to that work. Modified Taylor diagrams provide an easy way of visualizing and comparing statistical information about a number of models, and for multiple parameters, simultaneously. Using modified Taylor diagrams has led to new conclusions about the models tested in McNamara et al. (2013); also, the comparison of the data ingestion version of NeQuick is included. It is shown that the modified NeQuick model performs comparably with the data assimilation models from McNamara et al. (2013) and in multiple cases also shows considerable improvement, such as in hmF2 at the Hermanus Digisonde station. Key Points New data visualization technique is constructed and describedThree data assimilation and one empirical ionospheric model are comparedNew conclusion from McNamara et al. (2013) data is drawn