The applicability of existing topside ionospheric models to the South African region

The modelling of the electron density profile (Ne) for the topside ionosphere is challenging due to the limited availability of measured data. Over the past few years, a range of approaches to topside ionospheric modelling and representation of the Ne variation over the topside altitude range have been developed. This paper presents various topside ionospheric modelling efforts and describes their applicability for the South African region.