A Physics-Based Data Assimilation Facility for the Ionosphere-Plasmasphere-Polar Wind System

Utah State University, Logan UT

Investigators

Abstract

The Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) model is extended to include ionospheric measurements from the incoherent scatter radar chain and to include neutral wind measurements from a variety of regularly operating Fabry-Perot Interferometer sites. Following data assimilation using Kalman filtering techniques pioneered by tropospheric modelers, the GAIM model is supplied to the NSF Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) as an ionosphere/plasmasphere component of their predictive, physics based sun-to-earth Space Weather model. A particular application of this model will describe the propagation of geomagnetic storm effects from high latitudes to low latitudes.