2018 Workshop: High Latitude TI Coupling

Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere form a closely coupled system. Magnetospheric processes (such as Joule heating and auroral precipitation) deposit a significant amount of energy at high latitudes which directly and indirectly perturbs the mean state of the high latitude ionosphere and thermosphere system. It also perturbs ion-neutral energy and momentum coupling over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Even though a considerable amount of research effort has been focused on exploring and understanding the complex coupling dynamics between the high latitude ionosphere and thermosphere over the past two decades, it is still one of the long-standing challenges of global space weather research. Both the large-scale and small-scale responses of the thermosphere and ionosphere to geospace drivers are still poorly characterized observationally. Furthermore, current understanding of thermosphere-ionosphere climate is immature, particularly with respect to mechanisms for long-term changes. Empirical and assimilative modeling efforts show inconsistencies among observations and between observations and first-principle models. Well calibrated observations and better validated models will be needed to address these problems. This workshop aims to address these challenges by fostering collaborative efforts among present and future research activities. To this end we invite short presentations of data analysis (ground-based and space-based) and modeling (data assimilation and physics-based) results on high latitude thermosphere-ionosphere variability and coupling.