Effects of Geometric Error during Auroral Optics Inversion on an Ionospheric Model

Precipitating auroral electrons are one component of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system. Two-dimensional grids of topside precipitating electrons may have different energy fluxes, average energies, horizontal distributions, and types of electron distribution. Many different combinations being possible, it is often useful to measure these electron energetics grids, so other observations or measurements can be given context. One such way is to invert filtered all-sky images into these energetics grids. Unlike satellite or rocket based measurements, all-sky imagers allow wide temporal and spatial coverage on clear nights at relatively low cost.

Recent results from a rendering model have shown a geometric error that occurs during the inversion process that is introduced during the mapping portion of the technique. The general trends are that thinner arcs toward the horizon have greater geometric error than wider arcs centered on magnetic zenith.

One application for energy flux and average energy grids produced through this optical inversion process is input for data driven models like GEMINI (Geospace Environment Model of Ion-Neutral Interactions) which models the ionosphere. The rendering model takes well defined input energy grids and compares it to distorted output grids, and both of these can be passed to GEMINI as input. This poster will explore the effect of the geometric error that occurs in the optical inversion process on driving the GEMINI model, such as differing current closure structure.