HR: 0800h
AN: SA31A-0351    [Abstracts]
TI: Coupled Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Model Based on SAMI3 and LFM
AU: * Swisdak, M
EM: swisdak@ppd.nrl.navy.mil
AF: Icarus ResearchInc, 7113 Exfair Road, Bethesda, MD 20066 United States
AU: Joyce, G
SA31A-0351 AF: Icarus ResearchInc, 7113 Exfair Road, Bethesda, MD 20066 United States
AU: Huba, J
SA31A-0351 AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave SW, Washington, DC 20375-0001 United States
AU: Slinker, S
SA31A-0351 AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave SW, Washington, DC 20375-0001 United States
AB: A new coupled model of the high latitude ionosphere and magnetosphere is described. The ionosphere is described by the NRL model SAMI3 and the magnetosphere by the LFM model. A unique feature of this model is that there will be no open field lines in the ionospheric model: all field lines will close, even at high latitude (~ 89°). We assume dipole field lines to ~ 3 × 10⁴ km and close the field lines above this altitude breaking the dipole approximation. Thus, the physics is not properly modeled at very high altitudes, but is modeled reasonably well for altitudes below ~ 1 × 10⁴ km and provides a good estimate of integrated conductances. This technique avoids the issue of invoking boundary conditions at the upper boundary of a high latitude field line and can provide information on ionospheric outflow. To our knowledge all high latitude ionosphere models only extend to ~ 1000 km and invoke boundary conditions at this boundary which strongly affect the solution. Moreover, there are also potential problems in transitioning from closed to open field lines (i.e., from mid-latitude to high latitude) since the plasma parameters are discontinuous at this boundary and various numerical smoothing techniques are often required. We will present preliminary results from this new coupled model.
DE: 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704)
DE: 2475 Polar cap ionosphere
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431)
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005