Ionospheric Data Assimilation from a Data Provider’s Perspective

Abstract:

The Ionosphere/Thermosphere system is a very dynamic and complex medium to model. Given sufficient data and proper data handling, assimilative models can give a good representation of this system. One good dataset for this purpose comes from UV imagers on spacecraft. In particular, the Oxygen recombination emission (135.6 nm) and the Nitrogen Lyman-Birge Hopfield band (both 140-150 nm and 165-180 nm) are being collected by instruments on the NASA TIMED/GUVI and DMSP/SSUSI instruments. Similar UV data will also be available in the future from the ICON and GOLD missions. Currently, the Air Force is using the oxygen emission to infer ionospheric electron densities in the USU GAIM model for ionospheric forecasts. We have also been integrating data for the IDA4D model assimilation (Bust et al, 2007). As the data product designer for these UV products, we have an unique perspective on issues related to assimilating this data. These issues concern model resolution scales (Schunk, et al, 2011), filtering of noisy data, and handling of second order effects. We will discuss our experience with these issues and point out some future directions for assimilation of UV data.

Bust, G., Crowley, G., Curtis, N., Reynolds, A., Paxton, L., Coker, C., Bernhardt, P. "IDA4D - a new ionospheric imaging algorithm using non-linear ground-based and spaced- based data sources", American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SA11B-06.
Schunk, R.W., Scherliess, L., and Thompson, D.C., 2011 “Ionospheric Data Assimilation: Problems Associated with Missing Physics”, Aeronomy of the Earth's Atmosphere and Ionosphere. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series Volume 2, pp 437-442.