Project Summary

The Coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere (CMIT) global simulation model is being used to determine how stormtime ionospheric outflows influence: 1)  the convective transport of ionospheric plasma at auroral and polar latitudes; 2)  the distribution and intensity of field-aligned currents at the ionosphere; and  3)  the distribution and dynamics of the ionospheric conductivity and Joule dissipation. The CMIT model integrates the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) magnetospheric model with the NCAR Thermosphere-Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIE-GCM).  By including ionospheric outflows in the model, the project takes an important step in treating the magnetospheric and ionospheric-thermospheric regions as a single connected system with electrodynamic and inertial couplings between the regions.

A novel aspect of the project is its use of a recently implemented, multifluid version of the LFM component of CMIT.  Extensions to the CMIT model also include causally driven cusp-region, auroral/polar-cap boundary-region, and polar-wind outflows at LFM's ionospheric boundary, regulated by TIE-GCM's dynamic specification of the ionosphere.  The results will provide a useful touchstone for interpreting measurements, especially mass composition measurements, from existing NASA satellite missions such as Polar and Cluster, and it anticipates future needs to interpret distributed measurements of ionospheric and magnetospheric dynamics from the THEMIS and TWINS missions, the LWS Radiation Belt and IT Storm Probes, and the GEC and MMS satellites.

Living With a Star Program Element

LWS TR&T Focused Science Topic: Effects of Ionospheric-Magnetospheric Plasma Redistribution on Storms

Project-Related Publications and Reports

Melanson, P. D., W. Lotko, D. L. Murr, M. Wiltberger, J. G. Lyon (2007). Polar-region distributions of Poynting flux: Global models compared with observations, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., submitted.

Wiltberger, M.,  R. S. Weigel, W. Lotko, J. A. Fedder (2008). Modeling seasonal variations in auroral particle precipitation in a global scale magnetosphere - ionosphere model, J. Geophys. Res., accepted.

Wiltberger, M., W. Lotko,  J. G. Lyon, P. Damiano (2008). Effect of O+ ionospheric outflow in a multifluid MHD model of the magnetosphere, Geophys. Res. Lett, submitted.