Assessment of the accuracy of calculations using the international reference ionosphere model IRI-2016: I. electron densities

The paper quantitatively compares the results of calculations of the electron density Ne by the International Reference Ionosphere model IRI-2016 with experimental data obtained from the DE-2 satellite. It considers 648 variants of heliogeophysical conditions. The deviation of theoretical estimates from experimental values is within the instrumental accuracy of satellite data in an average of 27% of cases. It is concluded that the IRI-2016 model, the approximation coefficients of which in functional dependences are associated with heights of the F-region, gives negative values of the efficiency coefficient of the predicted electron density in ~73% of cases in the outer ionosphere at altitudes over 500 km.