Vertical TEC representation by IRI 2012 and IRI Plas models for European midlatitudes

Vertical total electron content (vTEC) values computed using IRI-2012 and IRI Plas models have been compared with diurnal GPS vTEC data derived from European mid-latitude GPS station Potsdam. Comparative data-model analysis does not reveal good performance in vTEC representation. It was found that new extension of IRI model - IRI Plas - cannot represent correctly the vTEC variations over European midlatitudes and mainly overestimates GPS vTEC especially for low and moderate solar activity. In order to estimate the source of the data-model discrepancies, the case-study with detailed analysis of the model simulated electron density profiles was done. It was obtained that all models do not represent correctly the topside profile part and tend to overestimate the electron density higher than F2 peak. So, the main problem of the IRI vTEC representation is not situated in the plasmaspheric part, its absence in IRI model or its presence in IRI Plas model, the main source of the resulted discrepancies is still in the IRI topside ionosphere representation.