The Response of the Thermosphere and Ionosphere to Geomagnetic Storms Simulated by the Coupled TING and LFM Models

A two way coupling system has been developed to link the Thermosphere-Ionosphere Nested Grid (TING) Model with the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) Global Magnetospheric Model. This coupled model is used here to study the ionospheric and thermospheric response to the September 12-17, 1999 geomagnetic storm. Comparisons are made between the case in which the TING model feeds back into the magnetospheric model and the case where no such feedback occurs. In addition, comparisons are made between the conductivites and ion winds of the linked models and those of statistical models. We also discuss the time-varying responses of global neutral wind and temperature structures, and ionospheric electron density distributions to changes in high latitude energy and momentum inputs from the magnetosphere during the storm.