Systematic Climatology Assessment of Ionosphere/Thermosphere Models during November 2007 to February 2008

The performance of Ionosphere/Thermosphere (IT) models during the solar minimum period during the four month period from November 2007 to February 2008 is evaluated. For this study, the physical parameters selected are median values of the electron peak density and the height of this peak from COSMIC LEO satellites, median total electron content (TEC) from GPS satellites around 20,000 km observed at many ground stations, and global mean daily neutral densities from satellite drag analyses. The IT models have been run at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center for this 4-month period using appropriate geophysical inputs. A 24-hour climatological day will be found using median values of observations and model outputs, where medians should reflect quiet solar minimum conditions. The neutral density comparisons are between global daily means from the 24-hour climatological model days with the median from the satellite drag derived global mean daily values during the 4-month period. To make the comparisons manageable in this initial climatology validation at the CCMC, the global scope will be reduced by looking at 5 degree geographic latitude and 15 degree geographic longitude bins located in approximately 5 longitude swaths with good ground TEC coverage. Skill scores will also be evaluated for low, middle, and high latitudes.