SA030-0009
New 2-way Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Coupling within the Space Weather Modeling Framework

Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Poster
Meghan Burleigh, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, United States, Aaron J Ridley, Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, Daniel T Welling, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States, Agnit Mukhopadhyay, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States and Michael Warren Liemohn, University of Michigan, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Abstract:
The high-latitude ionosphere is a dynamic environment influenced not only by magnetospheric precipitation and currents from above but thermospheric motions such as waves, tides, and neutral upwelling from below. All of these external processes, as well as the ion production, loss and transport from within, act together to determine the ionospheric state (viz. local density, momentum, and temperature) and play a critical role in determining the local conductivity. This conductivity directly impacts how magnetospheric currents are closed through the high-latitude ionosphere and is crucial for an accurate description of the MIT system.

The Space Weather Modeling Framework has been updated to include 2-way coupling between the upper atmosphere (UA) component and the ionospheric electrodynamics (IE) component. This allows for the self-consistent, physics-based calculation of conductance from GITM, the UA component, to be used by the IE component to determine the electric potential that is passed out to the magnetospheric components (e.g. BATS-R-US and RCM) ultimately facilitating a 2-way coupled MIT system. Consequences of using the 1-way coupled vs. the new 2-way coupled M-IT system are discussed in detail and comparisons presented of quiet and storm conditions.

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