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

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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.

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Acknowledgements

A.M. would like to thank A.D. Richmond for comments on an earlier draft. A.M. was supported by NASA grant NNX14AP03G. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. ICON is supported by NASA’s Explorers Program through contracts NNG12FA45C and NNG12FA42I. We would like to acknowledge high-performance computing support from Yellowstone (ark:/85065/d7wd3xhc) provided by NCAR’s Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The author would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments.

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The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission

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Maute, A. Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model for the Ionospheric Connection Explorer: TIEGCM-ICON. Space Sci Rev 212, 523–551 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-017-0330-3

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