Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model for the Ionospheric Connection Explorer: TIEGCM-ICON.

Abstract

The NASA Ionospheric Connection explorer (ICON) will study the coupling between the thermosphere and ionosphere at low- and mid-latitudes by measuring the key parameters. The ICON mission will also employ numerical modeling to support the interpretation of the observations, and examine the importance of different vertical coupling mechanisms by conducting numerical experiments. One of these models is the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model-ICON (TIEGCM-ICON) which will be driven by tidal perturbations derived from ICON observations using the Hough Mode Extension method (HME) and at high latitude by ion convection and auroral particle precipitation patterns from the Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE). The TIEGCM-ICON will simulate the thermosphere-ionosphere (TI) system during the period of the ICON mission. In this report the TIEGCM-ICON is introduced, and the focus is on examining the effect of the lower boundary on the TI-system to provide some guidance for interpreting future ICON model results.