ADVANCES TOWARD A NEAR REAL TIME DESCRIPTION OF THE SOLAR ATMOSPHERE AND INNER HELIOSPHERE WE PROPOSE TO ADAPT THREE CURRENT DEMONSTRATED ANALYSIS METHODS INTO A NOWCASTING FACILITY FOR THE SOLAR WIND NEAR THE SUN. THE METHODS ARE: FLUXON MODELING OF GLOBAL MAGNETIC FIELD EVOLUTION IN THE VICINITY OF THE SUN MAGNETIC TRACKING OF MAGNETIC FOOTPOINTS IN PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNETOGRAMS DIRECT AUTOMATED MEASUREMENT OF WIND FLOW SPEED VIA FOURIER SPEED FILTERING IN CORONAGRAPH AND HELIOSPHERIC IMAGER DATA THESE THREE TECHNIQUES COMBINED HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REPLACE WSA WITH A MORE PHYSICS-BASED INTEGRATIVE AND ASSIMILATIVE MODEL OF THE SOLAR WIND AT THE BASE OF THE HELIOSPHERE. THE FLUXON MODEL FLUX WAS DEVELOPED AT SWRI AND TREATS THE SOLAR MAGNETIC FIELD AS A SKELETON OF MAGNETIC FIELD LINES EACH OF WHICH SUPPORTS A 1-D PLASMA MODEL; THIS GREATLY REDUCES THE COMPUTATIONAL LOAD REQUIRED TO DEVELOP 3-D REDUCED-MHD CORONAL MODELS BY ELIMINATING NUMERICAL RESISTIVITY; THE COST IS THAT ONLY DISCRETE AND NOT CONTINUOUS RECONNECTION CAN BE MODELED. THE CODE IS CURRENTLY UNDERGOING DEVELOPMENT INTERNALLY FUNDED BY SWRI TO PRODUCE QUASI-SMOOTH RECONNECTION AND ENABLE GLOBAL INTEGRATIVE SIMULATION. SWAMIS IS A PIONEERING MAGNETIC TRACKING CODE THAT HAS BEEN USED FOR NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS BUT WAS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY TO DRIVE GLOBAL FLUXON MODELS. DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF WIND SPEED VIA IMAGE SPEED-SPECTRUM ANALYSIS WAS RECENTLY PIONEERED AND DEMONSTRATED BY THE PI. WE NOW PROPOSE TO USE IT TO INTEGRATE WIND SPEED DATA INTO THE SUITE OF 1-D WIND MODELS EMBODIED IN A GLOBAL FLUXON SIMULATION OF THE SUN. BY EVOLVING THE MODEL WITH INPUT FROM SWAMIS AND FROM ROUTINE CORONAGRAPH IMAGES WE WILL PRODUCE AN IMPROVED NOWCASTING MODEL THAT CAN BE USED TO DRIVE A HELIOSPHERIC PREDICTIVE SIMULATION SUCH AS ENLIL. WE WILL DISSEMINATE THE MODEL TO THE COMMUNITY VIA CCMC AND DIRECT CODE DISTIBUTION.