THE EARTH S IONOSPHERE-THERMOSPHERE-ELECTRODYNAMICS (I-T-E) SYSTEM VARIES MARKEDLY ON A RANGE OF SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES THAT CAN HAVE ADVERSE EFFECTS ON HUMAN OPERATIONS AND SYSTEMS AND CONSEQUENTLY THERE IS A NEED TO BOTH MITIGATE AND FORECAST NEAR-EARTH SPACE WEATHER. FOLLOWING THE METEOROLOGISTS WE HAVE DEVELOPED A MULTIMODEL ENSEMBLE PREDICTION SYSTEM (MEPS) FOR SPECIFICATIONS AND FORECASTS OF THE GLOBAL I-T-E SYSTEM. MEPS CONSISTS OF FIRST-PRINCIPLES-BASED DA MODELS FOR THE IONOSPHERE IONOSPHERE-PLASMASPHERE THERMOSPHERE HIGH-LATITUDE IONOSPHERE-ELECTRODYNAMICS AND THE MID-LOW LATITUDE IONOSPHEREELECTRODYNAMICS. WE PROPOSE TO ENHANCE THE USER INTERFACES AND THE ROBUSTNESS OF MEPS TO PROVIDE FOR A MORE EFFECTIVE USAGE BY THE HELIOPHYSICS COMMUNITY. FURTHERMORE WE PROPOSE TO EXPLORE THE NEXT STEPS NECESSARY FOR MAJOR ADVANCEMENTS WITH A FOCUS ON AN IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF SMALLER SCALE STRUCTURES. SPECIFICALLY WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A MASTER SYSTEM THAT WILL ENHANCE THE USER INTERFACE TO THE MEPS MODEL AND ENABLE THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY TO EFFICIENTLY USE THE MODEL. THE SYSTEM WILL INCLUDE THE VARIOUS MODELS OF THE MEPS SUITE ALONG WITH AN EXECUTIVE MASTER SYSTEM TO TIE THE VARIOUS MODELS TOGETHER AND PERFORM THE AVERAGING OF THE MODELS. FURTHERMORE WE WILL BUILD AND AUTOMATE VALIDATION TOOLS TO ASSIST WITH BOTH THE INSTALLATION AND EXECUTION OF THE MODELS THROUGH VALIDATION OF THE MODEL RUNS AND AVERAGING AGAINST DATA AND HISTORICAL RUNS THAT ARE SAVED IN A DATABASE. THE AVERAGING PROCESS WILL BE IMPROVED THROUGH IMPLANTATION TO THE EFFICIENCY AND ROBUSTNESS OF THE MEPS ENSEMBLE-AVERAGING SCHEME. FINALLY WE WILL EXPLORE THE NEXT STEP TOWARD A MAJOR ADVANCEMENT IN MEPS BY SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVING THE SPATIAL RESOLUTION OF THE GAIM-FP DATA ASSIMILATION MODEL. THIS SPATIAL RESOLUTION CHANGE WILL ALLOW FOR THE EXPLORATION OF MESO- AND SMALL-SCALE FEATURES WHICH WILL OPEN THE DOOR FOR MAJOR ADVANCEMENTS OF THE MODEL FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. EXPECTED SIGNIFICANCE: THE ENHANCED MEPS DATA ASSIMILATION SYSTEM WILL BE USER-FRIENDLY AND ROBUST AND MADE AVAILABLE TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY SO THAT OTHERS CAN STUDY THE I-T-E SYSTEM WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART DATA ASSIMILATION MODELS. THE USE OF MEPS WILL LEAD TO A PARADIGM SHIFT IN HOW BASIC PHYSICAL PROCESSES ARE STUDIED IN NEAR-EARTH SPACE. SINCE MEPS RECONSTRUCTIONS WILL BE CONSISTENT WITH THE AVAILABLE I-T-E MEASUREMENTS; SELF-CONSISTENT ION OUTFLOWS CONVECTION E-FIELDS PRECIPITATION CURRENTS ETC. CAN BE PROVIDED TO MAGNETOSPHERE MODELS FOR INPUTS AND/OR VALIDATION.