The NRL-MSIS models

The new NRLMSISE-00 atmospheric model extends from the ground to the exobase and is a major upgrade of the MSISE-90 model in the thermosphere. The new model provides an empirical view of over four decades of diverse multi-instrument measurements of composition, temperature, and total mass density. Recent additions to the underlying MSIS database include total mass density from satellite accelerometers and orbit determination, plus temperature from incoherent scatter radars covering 1981-97. This paper compares the new model to the MSISE-90 and Jacchia-70 empirical models via statistical measures derived from the earlier MSIS database, the newly added data sets, and recently collected data from orbit determination and the NASA TIMED satellite.