SA031-0009
Modeling High-Energy Disturbances in GeoRad: a Global Variable-Resolution Ionospheric Model

Tuesday, 15 December 2020
Poster
Christopher Andrew Jeffery, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, Erin H Lay, Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, NM, United States, Keeley R Costigan, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos, NM, United States, Wesley P Even, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, United States, Heidi E Morris, Los Alamos National Laboratory, XCP-6, Los Alamos, NM, United States and Matthew Worstell, Science Applications International Corporation Washington DC, Washington, United States
Abstract:
Radio signals are strongly impacted by natural and artificial ionospheric disturbances which can be challenging to model at high-energies and small spatial scales. Higher energies place greater demand on advanced chemistry schemes that need to account for high-temperature impact reactions as well as vibrational states of oxygen and nitrogen. As demonstrated by the recent development of WACCM-D, modern computing resources have enabled the development of detailed chemistry schemes with many 10s of species and 100s of reactions in a global ionospheric setting. We present an implementation of a high-energy chemistry scheme in the GeoRad model: an emerging global variable-resolution ionospheric model based on SAMI3 and designed to model natural and artificial ionospheric disturbances at high spatial and temporal scales. Distinct from WACCM-D, GeoRad-Ionosphere utilizes an advanced chemistry, developed over decades at Los Alamos National Laboratory and by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, that eschews the specification of advanced chlorine and nitric acid chemistry in favor of higher energy processes and reactions that manifest over seconds to hours. Implications for RF refraction and absorption are highlighted in the artificially-disturbed ionosphere.
<< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>