Climatic characteristics of the ionosphere over Irkutsk. Observation and comparison with the model IRI-2001

Morphological peculiarities of electron density behavior over Irkutsk (52.3 N, 104.3 E) are investigated by the current-median method. In this paper, the results of comparison between observations and IRI model data in the decay phase of solar activity (2003-2006) are presented. Systematic discrepancies between forecast and observation are discussed.