HR: 08:15h
AN: SM11A-02 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Initial results from the coupled LFM-TING model
AU: * Wiltberger, M
EM: wiltbemj@ucar.edu
AF: NCAR/HAO, 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Wang, W
EM: wbwang@ucar.edu
AF: NCAR/HAO, 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Burns, A
EM: aburns@ucar.edu
AF: NCAR/HAO, 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Lyon, J G
EM: lyon@tinman.dartmouth.edu
AF: Dartmouth College Department of Physics and Astronomy, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AU: Solomon, S
EM: stans@ucar.edu
AF: NCAR/HAO, 3450 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AB: The Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry global MHD code has been successfully used to model the coupled solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere system. The simulation uses the ideal MHD equations to model the interaction between the magnetospheric plasma and the solar wind. The magnetosphere - ionosphere interaction is modeled through a simple 2D electrostatic approximation for the conservation of current flowing between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The Thermosphere - Ionosphere Nested Grid (TING) model is a three dimensional code designed to simulate the thermosphere - ionosphere system by solving the momentum, thermodynamic energy equations for the global thermosphere and ionosphere. TING uses magnetospheric indices to determine the magnetospheric input into the ionosphere. We begin this paper with a presentation of the coupling methodology and then present the results from a series of calibration studies conducted to determine the optimal parameters for coupling these models. The first study used an isolated substorm which occurred on May 20, 1996 as the basis of comparisons between in situ observations made by DMSP satellites and the results from AMIE studies. In addition, we present the results from a series of idealized solar wind conditions which explore the coupling under various IMF clock angles, levels of geomagnetic activity, and dipole tilt angles. These results show that the core coupling of the LFM to TING has been successful and is now ready for detailed analysis and tuning of the coupling parameters.
DE: 2447 Modeling and forecasting
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting