The variation characteristics and prediction performance of TEC in the geomagnetic latitude and local time coordinate

Total electron content (TEC), as one of the most valuable ionosphere parameters, has many variation characteristics. The TEC has specific characteristics at a given time, suggesting that the global TEC morphology distribution is maintained for a period. We consider the global ionosphere map (GIM) to be the actual ionospheric electron density integration, predict the GIM by a previous period in a geomagnetic latitude and local time (LT) coordinate system, and compare the differences between these two GIMs. The objective of this research is to find the morphological properties of global TEC in the geomagnetic latitude and LT coordinate system, reveal ionospheric behavior and predict TEC using an uncomplicated method. The GIM data for a solar cycle (2009–2020) are used to find the error characteristics and prediction performance of TEC in this coordinate. The equatorial ionization anomaly is the dominant error region. This error shows diurnal and seasonal variations and has a strong correlation with solar activity. The prediction error of this method is smaller than that of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model, especially in high solar activity years. The root mean square error of the 3-hr prediction is 6.53 in 2014 and 2.02 TECU in 2019, and it is 28.5% smaller than that of IRI on average for 2009–2020.