SA13A-3961:
Assessment of Modeling Capability for Reproducing Storm Impacts on TEC

Monday, 15 December 2014
Ja-Soon Shim1, Maria M Kuznetsova2, Lutz Rastaetter2, Dieter Bilitza3, Mihail Codrescu4, Anthea J Coster5, Barbara A Emery6, Matthias Foerster7, Ben Foster6, Timothy J Fuller-Rowell8, Joseph D Huba9, Larisa P Goncharenko5, Anthony J Mannucci10, Alexander A Namgaladze11, Xiaoqing Pi10, Boris E Prokhorov7, Aaron J Ridley12, Ludger Scherliess13, Robert Walter Schunk13, Jan Josef Sojka13 and Lie Zhu13, (1)Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)George Mason University, Washington, DC, United States, (4)SWPC/NOAA, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, MA, United States, (6)NCAR, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany, (8)Univ of Colorado-CIRES, Boulder, CO, United States, (9)Naval Research Lab DC, Washington, DC, United States, (10)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (11)Murmansk State Technical University, Murmansk, Russia, (12)Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (13)Utah State University, Logan, UT, United States
Abstract:
During geomagnetic storm, the energy transfer from solar wind to magnetosphere-ionosphere system adversely affects the communication and navigation systems. Quantifying storm impacts on TEC (Total Electron Content) and assessment of modeling capability of reproducing storm impacts on TEC are of importance to specifying and forecasting space weather. In order to quantify storm impacts on TEC, we considered several parameters: TEC changes compared to quiet time (the day before storm), TEC difference between 24-hour intervals, and maximum increase/decrease during the storm. We investigated the spatial and temporal variations of the parameters during the 2006 AGU storm event (14-15 Dec. 2006) using ground-based GPS TEC measurements in the selected 5 degree eight longitude sectors. The latitudinal variations were also studied in two longitude sectors among the eight sectors where data coverage is relatively better. We obtained modeled TEC from various ionosphere/thermosphere (IT) models. The parameters from the models were compared with each other and with the observed values. We quantified performance of the models in reproducing the TEC variations during the storm using skill scores. This study has been supported by the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Model outputs and observational data used for the study will be permanently posted at the CCMC website (http://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov) for the space science communities to use.