This paper presents the development of a storm‐time total electron content (TEC) model over the African sector for the first time. The storm criterion used was |Dst| ≥ 50 nT and Kp ≥ 4. We have utilized Global Positioning System (GPS) observations from 2000 to 2018 from about 252 receivers over the African continent and surroundings within spatial coverage of 40°S–40°N latitude and 25°W–60°E longitude. To increase data coverage in areas devoid of ground‐based instrumentation including oceans, we used the available radio occultation Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) TEC from 2008 to 2018. The model is based on artificial neural networks which are used to learn the relationship between TEC and the corresponding physical/geophysical input parameters representing factors which influence ionospheric variability. An important result from this effort was the inclusion of the time history of the geomagnetic activity indicators which improved TEC modeling by about 5% and 12% in middle and low latitudes, respectively. Overall, the model performs comparatively well with, and sometimes better than, the earlier single station modeling efforts even during quiet conditions. Given that this is a storm‐time model, this result is encouraging since it is challenging to model ionospheric parameters during geomagnetically disturbed conditions. Statistically, the average root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) between modeled and GPS TEC is 5.5 TECU (percentage error = 30.3%) and 5.0 TECU (percentage error = 30.4%) for the Southern and Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes respectively compared to 7.5 TECU (percentage error = 22.0%) in low latitudes.

中文翻译：

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使用人工神经网络对非洲区域电离层总电子含量的风暴时间建模

本文首次介绍了非洲地区风暴时间总电子含量（TEC）模型的开发。使用的风暴标准是| Dst | ≥50 nT和Kp ≥4.我们利用2000年至2018年的全球定位系统（GPS）观测值，从非洲大陆及周围40°S–40°N纬度和25°W–60°E经度的周围地区的大约252个接收器中获取了信息。为了增加没有地面仪器的区域（包括海洋）的数据覆盖范围，我们使用了2008年至2018年可用的无线电掩星“气象，电离层和气候（COSMIC）TEC星座观测系统”。该模型基于人工神经网络用于了解TEC和代表影响电离层变异性因素的相应物理/地球物理输入参数之间的关系。这项工作的重要结果是纳入了地磁活动指标的时间历史在中低纬度地区的TEC建模分别提高了5％和12％。总体而言，即使在安静的条件下，该模型的性能也比早期的单站建模效果更好，有时甚至更好。鉴于这是一个风暴时间模型，因此该结果令人鼓舞，因为在地磁扰动条件下对电离层参数建模具有挑战性。统计上，南半球和北半球中纬度与GPS TEC的平均均方根误差（RMSE）分别为5.5 TECU（百分比误差= 30.3％）和5.0 TECU（百分比误差= 30.4％），而7.5 TECU （在低纬度地区，百分比误差= 22.0％）。