2016 Workshop: MIT Coupling Drivers and Impacts

The magnetosphere is one of the major energy sources that drive the Earth's upper atmosphere. During storm times, the magnetosphere deposits significant energy into the ionosphere and thermosphere (IT) in the form of auroral particle precipitation and Poynting flux. The subsequent high-latitude ionization, ionospheric electric field variations, Joule heating, and ion-drag forcing alter the global ionosphere – thermosphere dynamics. Current IT models (e.g. CTIPe, TIEGCM, and GTIM) drive the ionosphere – thermosphere using empirically calculated magnetospheric input. Since these input models (e.g. Weimer electrodynamics model and Hardy and/or Newell aurora statistics) average over decades of observations, they can provide fast solutions for any activity levels and any locations. However, they cannot sufficiently capture the spatiotemporal dynamics of magnetospheric energy sources during strong geomagnetic activities, thus limiting the predictive capability of IT models when it is most needed. More realistic calculation of magnetospheric energy input is necessary. Global magnetosphere MHD models (e.g. OpenGGCM, LFM, and BATSRUS) or Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE) technique could help specify magnetospheric energy input. In recent years, the coupled magnetosphere – ionosphere thermosphere (MIT) models, such as OpenGGCM-CTIM, LFM-TIEGCM, BATSRUS-GTIM, and AMIE-TIEGCM, have been gradually matured to the point to revisit the extensive ground/space observations and to investigate the complex coupling of the MIT system. Several groups are already working on numerical simulations and conducting extensive data analysis using DMSP, AMPERE, CHAMP, GRACE, etc. Therefore, it is the proper time to gather these recent efforts and foster discussion for better understanding the MIT coupling physics.