Vol.:(0123456789) Acta Geodaetica et Geophysica https://doi.org/10.1007/s40328-020-00317-1 1 3 ORIGINAL STUDY Modeling of ionospheric characteristics based on canonical correlation analysis at Bangalore for the year 2017 Ravi Kiran Pyla 1,2  · J. R. K. Kumar Dabbakuti 3  · S. G. Prasad Mutchakayala 3  · Sairam Yashoda 1  · Manikanta Alluri 1 Received: 19 March 2020 / Accepted: 1 September 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó 2020 Abstract Ionospheric peak electron density (NmF2) and total electron content (TEC) are the essen- tial measures of ionospheric variability for modeling their efects on navigation and com- munication system applications. The global and regional models have their limitations in predicting ionospheric variations at the low latitude Indian region, mainly due to the anom- alous electron density gradients and equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) efects. In this paper, ionospheric TEC characteristics are modeled based on canonical correlation analy- sis (CCA) with Global Positioning System (GPS)-TEC observations and NmF2 values at a northern low latitude station Bangalore (13.02° N and 77.57° E) during the 2017 period. The decomposed CCA modes consist of CCA patterns and their corresponding amplitudes. The short-term variations (diurnal) are reproduced by the CCA patterns, whereas the long- term variations (yearly) are reproduced by their corresponding amplitudes. The frst three CCA modes represent the ionospheric features such as diurnal, sunrise and sunset enhance- ments, semiannual, annual, and solar-cycle variations. Further, the temporal structures of NmF2 are efectively replicated by the CCA model. NmF2 (CCA) showed relatively higher linearity (0.99) and lower RMSE (0.31 TECU), whereas NmF2 (IRI2016) showed lower linearity (0.92) and higher RMSE (1.45 TECU) with the measured-NmF2 values. Hence, the CCA approach could be an efective method for characterizing the NmF2 variations over the low latitude region. Keywords Ionospheric peak electron density · Total electron content · Canonical correlation analysis · Equatorial ionization anomaly · International reference ionosphere * J. R. K. Kumar Dabbakuti kirankumar.au@gmail.com 1 Department of ECE, K L Deemed to be University, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh 522502, India 2 J. B. Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana, India 3 Department of ECM, K L Deemed to be University, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh 522502, India