HR: 1400h
AN: SA33B-01 [Abstracts]
TI: Global Model Comparison With Observations of the Ionosphere During September 2005
AU: * Pawlowski, D J
EM: dpawlows@umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan
Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Sciences, Space Research Building #1424
2455 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
AU: Ridley, A J
EM: ridley@umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan
Atmospheric Oceanic and Space Sciences, Space Research Building #1424
2455 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States
AB:
A comparison between results from the Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (GITM) and data from Millstone
Hill during the September 2005 incoherent scatter world month (ISWM) is presented. One dimensional GITM is
used to simulate the ionosphere for the entire month, and comparisons between electron densities, electron
temperatures and ion temperatures are performed. It is found that 1D GITM can reproduce the state of the
ionosphere to as high as 20% accuracy over the course of the month. The largest errors between the model and
observations occur during the geomagnetic storm that begins on September 10th. Therefore, 3D GITM was
also used to perform a more realistic simulation of the ionosphere during the storm. The model indicates that
enhanced electron densities throughout the 10th are a result of upwelling of molecular rich (N2) air
above Millstone Hill, which supports the conclusions made by Goncharenko et. al. (2006).
A comparison of the results and the data show that the RMS errors using 3D GITM are not significantly better than
the errors using 1D GITM. However, the cross correlation between 3D GITM and the observations, in most cases,
is significantly higher than the cross correlation between 1D GITM and the observations. This indicates that the
high latitude dynamics associated with the storm propagate to the mid-latitudes. Therefore, the global effects of a
storm must be accounted for in order to accurately simulate the ionosphere in the Millstone Hill region.
DE: 2437 Ionospheric dynamics
DE: 2441 Ionospheric storms (7949)
DE: 2443 Midlatitude ionosphere
DE: 2447 Modeling and forecasting
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly