DOI

Auroral Ionosphere Model (AIM-E) is designed to calculate chemical content in the high-latitude E region ionosphere and takes into account both the solar EUV radiation and the electron precipitation of magnetospheric origin. The latter is extremely important for auroral ionosphere chemistry especially in disturbed conditions. In order to maximize the AIM-E timing ac-curacy when simulating highly variable periods in the course of geomagnetic storms and sub-storms, we suggest to parameterize the OVATION-Prime empirical precipitation model with the ground-based Polar Cap (PC) index. This gives an advantage to: (1) perform ionospheric simulation with actual input, since PC index reflects the geoeffective solar wind conditions; (2) promptly assess the current geomagnetic situation, since PC index is available in real-time with 1 min resolution. The simulation results of AIM-E with OVATION-Prime (PC) demonstrate a good agreement with the ground-based incoherent scatter radar data (EISCAT UHF, Tromso) and with the vertical sounding data in the Arctic zone during events of intense particle precipitation. The model re-produces well the electron content calculated in vertical column (90–140 km) and critical frequency of sporadic E layer (fOEs) formed by precipitating electrons. The AIM-E (PC) model can be applied to monitor the sporadic E layer in real-time and in the entire high-latitude ionosphere, including the auroral and subauroral zones, which is important for predicting the conditions of radio wave propagation.

Original languageEnglish
Article number402
Number of pages15
JournalATMOSPHERE
Volume13
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2022

    Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)

    Research areas

  • Auroral oval, E region of ionosphere, Electron concentration, Electron precipitation, Numerical modeling, PC index, Substorm, electron concentration, ENERGY, FIELD, SPORADIC-E, LAYERS, substorm, E-REGION, auroral oval, electron precipitation, numerical modeling

ID: 93301235