Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM)

The ionosphere is a highly dynamic medium that can vary significantly from day to day and from hour to hour at a given location, and these variations can have detrimental effects on military and civilian systems. In an effort to minimize or circumvent the detrimental effects, a physics-based data assimilation model of the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere is under development with funding from the DoD MURI program. Two university consortia are involved, with USU and USC as the lead institutions. When completed, the GAIM (Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements) model will provide specifications and forecasts on a spatial grid that can be global, regional, or local (50 km x 50 km). GAIM will use a physics-based ionosphere-plasmasphere model and a Kalman filter as a basis for assimilating a diverse set of real-time (or near real-time) measurements. Some of the data to be assimilated include in situ density measurements from satellites, ionosonde electron density profiles, occultation data, ground-based GPS TECs, TECs between ground stations and LEO satellites with radio beacons, and line-of-sight UV emissions from selected satellites. The resulting specifications and forecasts will be in the form of 3-dimensional electron density distributions from 90 km to geosynchronous altitude (35,000 km). An initial form of GAIM already exists and recent results from the USU consortium will be presented.