DATA ASSIMILATION FOR THE STUDY OF MAGNETOSPHERE-IONOSPHERE-ATMOSPHERE COUPLING
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bath
Department Name: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Abstract
State-of-the-art ionospheric imaging techniques use Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite data. In a similar manner to medical imaging, where the patient is examined by X-rays, in ionospheric imaging the upper atmosphere (ionosphere) is examined by radio waves. The next big step for ionospheric imaging is to combine it with models of the ionosphere. The reason to do this is to discover the underlying physics, which we cannot do very well by just looking at the images. We need to link the images to models of winds, solar radiation and electric fields in order to understand what causes the upper atmospheric environment to behave as it does during extreme events called storms. These are not the weather storms we are familiar with but rather these space-weather storms are caused by the bombardment of the outer realms of the atmosphere with particles and radiation from the Sun. The mathematics we need to link the measurements to the models is called data assimilation. Data assimilation has already been strikingly successful in meteorology. The data assimilation to be developed under this grant is for much higher up in the atmosphere (above 100 km) and will be used to investigate the coupling between the neutral and ionized atmosphere and to determine the relationships between ionosphere-atmosphere dynamics and magnetosphere dynamics.
Publications
Baumgardner J
(2013)
Imaging space weather over Europe
in Space Weather
Chartier A
(2013)
A comparison of the effects of initializing different thermosphere-ionosphere model fields on storm time plasma density forecasts
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Kinrade J
(2013)
GPS phase scintillation associated with optical auroral emissions: First statistical results from the geographic South Pole
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Paul Prikryl
(2013)
An interhemispheric comparison of GPS phase scintillation with auroral emission observed at the South Pole and from the DMSP satellite
in Annals of Geophysics
Forte B
(2013)
Comparison of temporal fluctuations in the total electron content estimates from EISCAT and GPS along the same line of sight
in Annales Geophysicae
Luca Spogli
(2013)
GPS scintillations and total electron content climatology in the southern low, middle and high latitude regions
in Annals of Geophysics
Benton C
(2013)
Further observations of GPS satellite oscillator anomalies mimicking ionospheric phase scintillation
in GPS Solutions
Chartier A
(2012)
A 12year comparison of MIDAS and IRI 2007 ionospheric Total Electron Content
in Advances in Space Research
Katamzi Z
(2012)
Statistical analysis of travelling ionospheric disturbances using TEC observations from geostationary satellites
in Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics