A Steady State Model of Low Latitude Electron and Ion Temperatures
Abstract
A new steady state model of low latitude electron and ion temperatures has been developed based on the Sami2 model. Unlike Sami2, the new model neglects the time derivative term in the temperature equations and solves the resulting nonlinear boundary value at a single time. The underlying two dimensional dipole grid can extend from 85 to several 1000 km in altitude and 10s of degrees in latitude around the magnetic equator. The steady state solutions agree well with the Sami2 results throughout most of the day. The nighttime solutions are consistently too low because they cannot account for residual heat leftover from the daytime, and the model has difficultly converging around sunrise when the temperatures are changing rapidly. The relative importance of the various physical processes are discussed in detail in different altitude regimes and times of day. Comparisons of the model results to measurements from the Jicamarca incoherent scatter radar and the CINDI instrument on the C/NOFS satellite as well as the IRI model are also presented.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFMSA51B1612V
- Keywords:
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- 2415 IONOSPHERE / Equatorial ionosphere;
- 2447 IONOSPHERE / Modeling and forecasting;
- 2467 IONOSPHERE / Plasma temperature and density;
- 2481 IONOSPHERE / Topside ionosphere