As a result of the complex and typical behavior of the earth's magnetic field, the high latitude ionospheric parameters (such as the Vertical Total Electron Content, VTEC) are very dynamic. Thus, this study mainly focuses on the pattern of variation of the VTEC inferred from the GPS, IRI 2016, IRI-Plas 2017 and NeQuick 2 with different height over Antarctica during 2011–2017. It has been shown that the GPS-derived (GPS VTEC) and modelled (IRI 2016, IRI-Plas 2017 and NeQuick 2) VTEC do not show significant variations in the hourly values. This shows that the solar irradiance mostly responsible for the ionization of neutral molecules in the earth's upper atmosphere does not show significant hourly variation in the region. Moreover, the GPS VTEC values are larger than the modelled values on most of the hours with the highest Root-Mean-Square Deviations, RMSD (close to 14 TECU) resulting from underestimation of the VTEC by the IRI 2016 model being observed in the March equinox in 2014. On the other hand, relatively small RMSDs (less than 1 TECU) are observed on most of the hours in using all models, demonstrating that the models’ performance is good with the NeQuick 2 model showing the best followed by the IRI-Plas 2017. Similar and smooth VTEC variation patterns are also observed in the bottom-side, topside and plasmaspheric layers during both the high and low solar activity years. This shows the TEC variation does not have significant impact on the signal propagated through the ionosphere in the polar region. Besides, the highest and lowest contributions of the TEC have been seen in the topside and plasmaspheric layers, respectively. The topside TEC contribution generally increases when the solar activity (or solar irradiance) increases; while, the plasmaspheric TEC contribution enhances when the solar activity (or solar irradiance) drops. Moreover, the largest bottom-side contribution is observed in the December solstice during 2014–2017.

由于地球磁场复杂而典型的行为，高纬度电离层参数（例如垂直总电子含量，VTEC）非常动态。因此，本研究主要侧重于从GPS，IRI 2016，IRI-Plas 2017和NeQuick 2推算出的VTEC的变化模式，在2011-2017年期间其在南极上空的高度不同。已经显示，GPS派生（GPS VTEC）和模型化（IRI 2016，IRI-Plas 2017和NeQuick 2）VTEC的小时值没有显着变化。这表明，主要负责地球高层大气中中性分子电离的太阳辐照度在该区域没有显示出明显的小时变化。此外，由于在3月春分点观测到的ITEC 2016模型低估了VTEC，导致GPS VTEC值在大多数小时内具有最大均方根偏差RMSD（接近14 TECU）的模型值。 2014年。另一方面，在使用所有型号的大多数时间中，观察到相对较小的RMSD（少于1个TECU），这表明该型号的性能良好，其中NeQuick 2型号表现最好，其次是IRI-Plas 2017年。在高太阳活动年和低太阳活动年期间，在底面，顶面和等离子层也观察到了相似且平滑的VTEC变化模式。这表明TEC的变化对极性区域中通过电离层传播的信号没有显着影响。除了，TEC的最高和最低贡献分别出现在顶面和等离子层。当太阳活动（或太阳辐照度）增加时，顶部TEC的贡献通常会增加。而当太阳活动（或太阳辐照度）下降时，等离子层TEC的贡献会增强。此外，在2014年至2017年的12月冬至中，观察到了最大的底端贡献。