Internet access to ionosondes

Connecting ionosondes to the Internet gives easy access to real-time inform ation on ionospheric conditions. Some of the ionosonde sites provide just t he ionogram displays, others give in addition the scaled ionospheric charac teristics directly usable for frequency management and HF channel assessmen t. Some sounders also store days or months of station data, which makes it possible remotely to evaluate the time history of geophysical events. The I nternet link is also a convenient means for remote system maintenance and c ontrol. The paper addresses various aspects of the Internet-ionosonde scena rio, including database support, WWW publishing, user interface, security, and data format. A list of Internet accessible ionosonde stations is provid ed with a brief description. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.