FG: 3D Ionospheric Electrodynamics and Its Impact on the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupled System

Focus Group Chairs

• Hyunju Connor (hkconnor@alaska.edu)
• Dogacan Ozturk (Dogacan.S.Ozturk@jpl.nasa.gov)
• Bin Zhang (binzheng@ucar.edu)
• Gang Lu (ganglu@ucar.edu)

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Term

• Five years (2017-2022)

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Research area

• Magnetosphere – Ionosphere Coupling
• Global System Modeling

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Topic

The magnetosphere is one of the major energy sources that drive the Earth's upper atmosphere. During geomagnetic storms, the magnetosphere transmits significant energy and momentum into the upper atmosphere via field-aligned currents, Poynting flux, and auroral precipitation. In response, the ionospheric electric potentials and conductances increase, the thermosphere heats and expands, and the global atmospheric circulation changes. The ionosphere – thermosphere feedback can also influence magnetospheric dynamics. The heated thermosphere can enhance ionospheric outflows and change magnetic reconnection rates. The modified global circulation redistributes plasmas and neutrals, alters the ionospheric conductance and electric field, and thus changes the magnetospheric convection and reconnection. Although strong coupling of the magnetosphere – ionosphere – thermosphere (MIT) system are widely recognized by the space science community, studying this coupling dynamics as a whole global system has yet to be conducted comprehensively. To magnetospheric scientists, the ionosphere is treated as a two- dimensional, low-altitude boundary. The mass and momentum exchanges between the magnetosphere and the IT system are often ignored. More realistic calculation of upper atmospheric dynamics is necessary in the global magnetosphere - ionosphere models. To upper atmospheric scientists, simple statistical convection patterns and empirical auroral precipitation fluxes driven by the Kp and hemispheric power indices are commonly used to infer complicated magnetospheric dynamics. As a consequence, global IT models (e.g. CTIPe, TIEGCM, and GTIM) cannot sufficiently capture the spatiotemporal dynamics of magnetospheric energy sources during strong geomagnetic activities, thus limiting the predictive capability of these models when it is most needed. More realistic calculation of magnetospheric energy input is necessary. In recent years, the coupled magnetosphere – ionosphere – thermosphere (MIT) models (e.g. OpenGGCM- CTIM, LFM-TIEGCM, BATSRUS-GTIM, and AMIE-TIEGCM) have been gradually matured to the point to revisit the extensive ground/space observations and to investigate the complex coupling processes of the MIT system. It is thus the proper time to build on and expand these recent efforts. For the next five years, this new focus group (FG) will address, via modeling and observational approaches, 1) where, when, and how magnetospheric energy contributes to the IT system and 2) how the IT system feeds back to the magnetosphere.

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Goals and Deliverables

The ultimate goal of this focus group is to advance our physics-based understanding of global magnetosphere – ionosphere – thermosphere coupling dynamics. We are particularly interested in the following topics:

1. Momentum/Energy input from the magnetosphere to the upper atmosphere: The small and large-scale patterns of field-aligned currents, auroral precipitation, and Poynting flux during various geomagnetic events will be carefully examined using observations, theoretical calculations, and numerical simulations.
2. Responses of three-dimensional IT system to the magnetospheric input: This FG will investigate the impact of magnetospheric momentum/energy inputs on the three- dimensional IT system using global MIT models and/or global IT models coupled with AMIE. We will address how the spatiotemporal dynamics of magnetospheric input modifies the altitudinal profiles of electron density, ionospheric conductivity, and Joule heating. We will also study how this modification influences global ionospheric electrodynamics.
3. IT feedbacks to the magnetosphere: Variations in global ionospheric electrodynamics can influence the magnetospheric convection patterns and modify the magnetic reconnection rates. The coupled magnetosphere – ionosphere – thermosphere models can be a good tool to investigate the IT dynamics and their impact on the magnetospheric phenomena. Additionally, strong Joule heating and enhanced ionospheric temperature can produce ion outflows and modulate the reconnection rates. The outcome from this FG can be a good asset for the ion outflow modelers.

The main deliverables of this focus group will include the development, refinement, and application of more comprehensive and self-consistent, physics-based models that cover from the magnetosphere to the upper atmosphere, those of which fulfill the main objective of the GEM program.

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2020 Virtual GEM workshop - updated on July 13, 2020

• Location: Virtual workshop
• Time: July 20 - 23

1. Session 1 (stand-alone) : 1:00 - 2:30pm EDT on Jul 21 (Tuesday)
2. Session 2 (stand-alone): 3:00 - 4:30pm EDT on Jul 21 (Tuesday)
3. Session 3 (joint with MMV): 3:30 - 5:00pm EDT on Jul 22 (Wednesday)

Here are the confirmed speakers. The detailed schedule will be posted as the meeting dates get closer.

*** Standalone Session ***

1. Kunduri Bharat : A deep learning based approach for modeling the dynamics of AMPERE Birkeland currents
2. Agnit Mukhopadhyay : Global Driving of Auroral Conductance - Impacts and Numerical Considerations
3. Leslie Laamarche : Observations of Ion Heating with the Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radars
4. Alex Chartier : F-region ionospheric variability across both polar caps
5. Larry Lyons : Physics of the Longitude Alignment and Longitude Expansion of Substorm Expansion Initiation
6. Jiang Liu : Dawnside Auroral Polarization Streams
7. Maxime Grandin : Auroral proton precipitation fluxes inferred from global hybrid-Vlasov simulations
8. Daniel Billett : How fast can magnetosphere to thermosphere coupling get? Cusp observations using the SuperDARN radars and ground-based optics
9. Minghui Zhu : Contribution of ion precipitation induced conductance compared to electrons
10. Xiao-chen Shen : Rising and falling tone features of ECH waves
11. Hyunju Connor : Aurora precipitation and ionospheric conductance deduced from Chorus waves
12. Kevin Pham: Thermosphere's influence on the magnetosphere through ion outflow

*** Joint Session ***

Chaired by Katherine Garcia-Sage

15 mins for invited speakers and 10 mins for other speakers

1. Hyunju Connor : GEM ionospheric conductance challenge activity report
2. Michael Liemohn: The case for improving the Robinson formulas
3. Bob Robinson (invited) : COSPAR ISWAT activity report on aurora precipitation and conductance
4. Ryan Mcgranaghan (invited) : ISSI activity report on particle precipitation, ion outflow, and conductance
5. Agnit Mukhopadhyay : Ionospheric Control of Space Weather Forecasts - Auroral Conductance
6. Dong Lin : Diffuse Electron Precipitation Effects on SAPS - 2013 Mar 17
7. Christine Gabrielse : Conductance from All-Sky-Imagers - 2013 March 17
8. Xingbin Tian : Effects of ion precipitation on the height-dependent ionization and conductivity

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2019 Mini-GEM workshop - updated on Dec 6, 2019

• Location: Holiday Inn-Golden Gateway, 1500 Van Ness Ave
• Time: Dec 8, Sunday before AGU

1. Session 1 (stand-alone) : 12:00 - 1:30pm
2. Session 2 (stand-alone): 1:45 - 3:15pm
3. Session 3 (joint with MMV): 3:30 - 5:00pm

Dear Speakers,

Thank you for your contribution to our IEMIT sessions. Here is a tentative schedule. 10mins will be given per talk. Please prepare 5min talk (5 slides max) + 5min discussion.

*** Session 1 : 12:00-13.30 Redwood Room ***

1. Russell Cosgrove - Limits on Electrostatic Theory and a New, Semi-Analytical Electromagnetic Model for Coupling to the E-region Ionosphere
2. Robert Rankin - A new algorithm for MIT-coupling based on overset grids
3. Doga Ozturk - A new framework to incorporate high-latitude input for meso-scale electrodynamics: HIME
4. Xiaojia Zhang - Electron precipitations driven by ULF waves
5. Qianli Ma - Global electron precipitation by whistler mode chorus waves in the magnetosphere
6. Chih-Ping Wang - DMSP-THEMIS conjunction events: magnetospheric processes leading to soft electron precipitations and ionospheric upflows
7. Christine Garbrielse - Using All-Sky-Imagers to Probe Energy Flux and Conductance on Meso-scales
8. Agnit Mukhopadhyay - The new empirical conductance model in the SWMF

*** Session 2 : 13.45-15.15 Redwood Room ***

1. Toshi Nishimura - Extreme high-latitude MIT responses to a supersubstorm
2. Larry Lyons - MI coupling associated with the azimuthal expansion of plasma sheet bubbles and their heat flux divergence
3. Banafsheh Ferdousi - Association of SAPS Morphology with Ionosphere Parameters
4. Ying Zou - Substorm-driven winds and their possible preconditioning role for Steve
5. Lindsay Goodwin - Dayside Polar Cap Flows and Density Enhancements Triggered by Substorms
6. Andrew Menz - The Effect of Ring Current Heating on the Plasmaspheric Ion Density
7. Shasha Zhou - Segmentation of Storm Enhanced Density (SED) by Boundary Flows Associated with Westward Drifting Partial Ring current
8. Qingyu Zhu - High-latitude electrodynamic forcings and their impacts on the ionosphere and thermosphere: Static-binned vs boundary-oriented forcings
9. Naomi Maruyama - Extreme magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling: challenges in space weather modeling

*** Session 3 : 15.30-17.00 Redwood Room ***

This is a joint session with the Modeling Methods & Validation (MMV) focus group on Ionospheric conductance challenge session.

This session specifically focuses on the following events.

1. 2013 Mar 17
2. 2016 Oct 13-15
3. 2015 Jul 21-24
4. 2012 March 9

We welcome any presenters with results on the challenge events to present at the beginning of the session. We kindly ask the presenters to prepare 1 summary slide on these results. The session will then proceed in a free discussion format with key discussion points.

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2019 GEM Workshop - updated on Jun 23, 2019

• Location: La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, NM.

• Time:

1. Session 1 (stand-alone) : 10:30 - 12:00 pm on Monday (06/24)
2. Session 2 (stand-alone): 1:30 - 3:00pm on Monday (06/24)
3. Session 3 (joint with MMV): 3:30 - 5:00pm on Tuesday (06/25)
4. Session 4 (joint with UMEA): 3:30 - 5:00pm on Wednesday (06/26)

Dear speakers,

Here is a final schedule for the IEMIT sessions. Note that the talk duration has been changed to include late talk requests. To speed up the transition between speakers, please send a presentation file at least one hour before the session to hkconnor@alaska.edu.

Thank you very much for your participation.

*** 1. IEMIT stand-alone session: 10:30 - 12:00 pm on Monday in Lumpkins Ballroom ***

Please prepare 7min talk + 5min discussion.

1. Olga Verkhoglyadova: Summary of CEDAR MIT coupling efforts
2. Hyunju Connor: Relation between reconnection and cross polar cap potential during the sudden enhancement of solar wind pressure; SMILE mission for the MIT coupling study.
3. Doga Ozturk: What is the role of meso-scale electric fields in M-I-T Coupling?
4. Kevin Pham: CMIT model
5. Dong Wei: The magnetospheric driving source of double-peak subauroral ion drifts (DSAIDs): Double ring current pressure peak
6. Qianli Ma: diffusion coefficients due to chorus waves and electron precipitation features
7. Dmytro Sydorenko: Development of a photoelectron effects module for a comprehensive model of coupled ionosphere and magnetosphere
8. Zihan Wang (5min talk): SED segmentation due to boundary flows

*** 2. IEMIT stand-alone session: 1:30 - 3:00 pm on Monday in Lumpkins Ballroom North ***

Please prepare 7min talk + 5min discussion.

1. Christine Garbrielse: Storm Time Mesoscale Plasma Flows in the Nightside High‐Latitude Ionosphere
2. Jiang Liu: SWARM & DMSP observations of the eastward plasma flows in the dawnside ionosphere and their comparison with THEMIS ASI observations.
3. Ying Zou: effects of substorms in high-latitude upper thermospheric winds
4. Sebastijan Mrak : Storm-time MI-coupling at mid-latitudes: Highly structured plasmapause boundary layer
5. Brian Anderson: Observed GIC Events in the Pacific Northwest and Corresponding Ionospheric Electrodynamics: Beyond Substorms as the Dominant Cause of GICs
6. Denny Oliveira: A historical finding of a sporadic aurora sighting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 15 Feb 1875
7. Colby Lemon: Role of ion precipitation in plasmasphere erosion
8. Naomi Maruyama (5min talk): Cold plume plasma coupling between the magnetosphere, plasmasphere and ionosphere

*** 3. IEMIT-MMV joint session for ionospheric conductance challenge: 3:30 - 5:00 pm on Tuesday in Lumpkins Ballroom South ***

The ionospheric conductance challenge session focuses on a few challenge storms: 1. 2013 Mar 17, 2. 2016 Oct 13-15, 3. 2015 Jul 21-24, and 4. 2012 March 9.

At this GEM meeting, we will discuss about the 2013-Mar-17 storm. We recommend speakers to prepare the following parameters for easy comparison between observations and models.

Line plots at Poker Flat Location [geographic lat. & long. : 65.13°N, 147.47°W, geomagnetic lat. & long. in 2013 : 65.72°N and 96.51°W]

1. Aurora energy flux & mean aurora energy vs time
2. Height-integrated conductance (Pederson & Hall) vs time
3. Field-aligned current (FAC) vs time

Line plots over the northern and southern hemispheres,

1. Total hemispheric aurora power vs time
2. Total hemispheric Joule heating vs time
3. Total hemispheric FAC vs time
4. Cross Polar Cap potential vs time

2D maps over the northern and southern hemispheres with 5min resolution in Geomagnetic coordinates,

1. Aurora energy flux & mean energy
2. Pederson & Hall ionospheric conductance
3. ionospheric electric potentials
4. Field-aligned currents
5. Joule heating

Here is the speaker list. Please prepare 5min talk + 5min discussion.

1. Overview from the CEDAR conductance challenge on the 17 Mar 2013 storm
2. Shin Ohtani: Solar zenith angle dependence of the auroral electrojets and its impact on conductance.
3. Toshi Nishimura: Ionospheric conductance observations of the 17 March 2013 event
4. Doga Ozturk: GTIM empirical results.
5. Agnit Mukhopadhya: BATSRUS results on the 17 Mar 2013 storm
6. Margaret Chen: Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Electron Precipitation Dynamics and Conductance during the 17 March 2013 Storm
7. Hyunju Connor + Gang Lu + Bob Robinson (15min talk +15min discussion): OpenGGCM, AMIE, Bob model comparison

*** 4. IEMIT-UMEA joint session for waves & their impact on IT: 3:30 - 5:00 pm on Wednesday in Lumpkins Ballroom South ***

15mins for invited talk and 10mins (5min talk + 5min discussion) for other talks will be given.

1. (Invited) Boyi Wang: Ionospheric modulation by Pc5 ULF waves and wave structure detected by PFISR
2. (Invited) Xiaojia Zhang / Anton Artemyev: ULF modulation of VLF waves and precipitation
3. Doga Ozturk: Update from GEM/CEDAR joint session, PFISR E/ground magnetometer comparisons
4. Anatoly Streltsov: Effects of Hall conductivity on generation of ULF waves in magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions
5. Mergen Aligabetov: ULF waves observed in space and on the ground at high and low latitudes
6. Mark Engebretson: Multi-Instrument Observations of Nighttime Impulsive Magnetic Events
7. Bob Lysak: Modeling ionospheric conductance and ground magnetic fields
8. Yan Song: ULF wave, M-I coupling and Auroral formation.

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2018 mini-GEM Workshop - updated on Oct 5, 2018

• Location: Hilton Old Town Alexandria in Alexandria, Virginia.

• Time: 12:00-17:00 on Dec 10, Sunday before the AGU meeting.

Dear GEM and CEDAR scientists,

The first two sessions are stand-alone sessions and focus on MIT coupling. The last session is a joint session with Modeling Methods & Validation (MMV) focus group, focusing on ionospheric conductance challenge.

Here are the tentative schedule for the upcoming mini-GEM. Please check this page again for the final schedule.

*** Session 1 - 12:00-13:30 in Jefferson Room ***

Please prepare 10min talk + 5min discussion.

1. Kevin Pham - Overview of the LFM-IPWM-TIEGCM (LIT) model
2. Dogacan Ozturk - the effects of small-scale electric fields on the MIT coupling
3. Qingyu Zhu - Boundary-oriented convection and particle precipitation patterns for IMF Bz southward dominant conditions and their impacts on Joule heating: Preliminary results
4. Andrew Kiene - Observations of ion-neutral coupling and Joule heating driven by energy input from the magnetosphere
5. Denny Oliveira - Neutral Mass Density Response to Extreme Geomagnetic Storms: Current and Future Perspectives
6. Jonathan Krall - the effect of oxygen on the limiting H+ flux in the topside ionosphere

*** Session 2 - 13:50-15:20 in Jefferson Room ***

Please prepare 10min talk + 5min discussion.

1. Xiaojia Zhang - Diffuse aurora precipitation pattern deduced from the Electron-Cyclotron-Harmonics waves in the inner magnetosphere
2. Qianli Ma - Plasma sheet electron scattering and diffuse aurora precipitation by whistler mode chorus waves
3. Lindsay Goodwin - Cluster-ground conjunctions associated with polar cap density structures
4. Alex Chartier - The cause of the puzzling annual variability of polar cap patches
5. Jiaen Ren - Statistical Characteristics of Polar Cap Patches Observed by RISR‐C
6. **Canceled** Steve Kaeppler - E-region neutral winds derived from ISR data.

*** Session 3 - 15:30 - 17:00 in Salon A&B room ***

At the beginning of the session, Rob Redmon will start with a couple slides of discussion of the solar wind for the Oct 2016 event. After his talk, each speaker will have about 10 minutes to present. The current speaker order is below (but subject to re-ordering).

1. Rob Redmon
2. Steve Kaeppler
3. Bob Robinson
4. Gang Lu - presented by Hyunju Connor
5. Margaret Chen
6. Agnit Mukhopadhyay - presented by Mike Liemohn
7. Dan Weimer
8. Cheng Sheng - Ionospheric Conductance from COSMIC observations and RCM-GITM coupling

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2018 GEM Workshop - updated on Jun 18, 2018

Dear GEM and CEDAR scientists,

Here are the schedules for IEMIT-IHMIC and IEMIT sessions. We encourage both GEM and CEDAR scientists to join our discussion. We also allow walk-in presentations. If you are interested in giving a talk, please let us know by Friday morning. Here are emails of conveners: Hyunju Connor at hkconnor@alaska.edu and Hyomin Kim at hmkim@njit.edu.

Friday, June 22, 13:30-15:00 (IEMIT-IHMIC Joint FG Session)

*** Location: Eldorado B ***

10min is given per talk. We recommend to prepare 7min talk + 3min discussion. You can check the same schedule in the following website. [IHMIC].

1. Bob Clauer: Inter-hemispheric Comparisons along the 40-degree magnetic meridian
2. Denny Oliveira: GIC induced by interplanetary planetary shocks
3. Michelle Salzano: A Statistical Analysis of Interhemispheric Pi1B Seasonal Variations
4. Hyunju Connor -Solar wind dynamic pressure impact on high-latitude neutral density enhancement: OpenGGCM-CTIM results
5. Doga Ozturk - Modeling of coupled MIT system response to solar wind dynamic pressure enhancement
6. Kevin Pham - CMIT-IPWM one way coupling - Thermosphere impact on the magnetosphere
7. Open discussions and walk-in presentations

Friday, June 22, 15:30-17:00 (IEMIT Session)

*** Location: Eldorado B ***

Dear speakers,

There has been schedule changes. Please check below. 10min is given per talk, but please expect some delays in the schedule. I recommend speakers to prepare up to 5 slides, 5min talk, and 5min discussion. Please send your final slides to hkconnor@alaska.edu by Friday noon.

1. 3:30pm: Hyunju Connor - Introduction of the IEMIT session.
2. 3:35pm: Marc Lessard - Neutral upwelling event observed from the RENU2 sounding rocket
3. 3:45pm: Brent Sadler - Simulation Study of Small-scale Plasma / Neutral Dynamics during Poleward Moving Auroral Forms
4. 3:55pm: Kristina Lynch - Isinglass auroral rocket study and ARCS (Auroral Reconstruction CubeSwarm) mission
5. 4:05pm: Christine Gabrielse: Statistical study of mesoscale plasma flows in the ionosphere
6. 4:15pm: Olga Verkhoglyadova - dynamic and localized energy transport in the high-latitude IT
7. 4:25pm: Russell Cosgrove : Failure of the Electrostatic Assumption and Affects on E-Region Coupling
8. 4:35pm: Larry Lyons : Identification of auroral zone activity driving large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances
9. 4:45pm: open discussion and walk-in presentations

Sincerely,

Hyunju Connor, Binzheng Zhang, Gang Lu, and Haje Korth.

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2017 Mini-GEM Workshop - Updated on Dec 6

• Location: Magnolia Room, Hilton Garden Inn - New Orleans Convention Center, 1001 S Peters St, New Orleans, LA70130

• Time: 15:30 - 17:00pm on Dec 10

Dear speakers,

Here is a tentative schedule for our mini-GEM session. Please visit this website again for the final schedule. If you need to change the schedule, please send an email to hkconnor@alaska.edu.

We now have a total of 11 speakers. We still keep 10min per talk except the last two talks. For speakers who get 10 mins, please prepare 7min talk and 3min question time. To save time, please send your presentation files to hkconnor@alaska.edu by 3pm on Dec 10. This session will follow a typical GEM style format, i.e., audiences can ask questions during the presentations. We are looking forward to your talks. Thank you.

1. Evan Thomas: New statistical patterns of ionospheric convection derived from SuperDARN observations
2. Jennifer Carter: Two mechanisms for dayside polar cap auroral emissions under northward IMF
3. Alex Chartier: Puzzling Global (N+S) December Maximum of Polar Cap Patches Observed using Swarm
4. Qingyu Zhu: Impacts of small scale electric field/particle precipitation on Joule heating: GITM simulations
5. Olga Verkhoglyadova: Semi-analytical estimation of energy deposition by Alfven waves into the ionosphere during storms
6. Robert Rankin: Suppression of the ionospheric feedback instability
7. Ryan McGranaghan: Characteristics of multi-scale field aligned currents and implications for the magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system
8. Doga Ozturk: Response of the coupled M-I-T system to the March 17, 2015 solar wind dynamic pressure enhancement event, insights from numerical studies
9. Ivan Pakhotin: The role of Alfven waves in M-I coupling: Swarm observations of large-amplitude magnetic perturbations during northward IMF
10. Dong Lin (5min talk): The Role of Solar Wind Density in the Cross Polar Cap Potential Saturation under Northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field
11. Naomi Maruyama (5min talk): Ionosphere-Plasmasphere-Magnetosphere coupling during the St. Patrick's Day Storms on 2013 and 2015

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Session Proposal

Download the session proposal here.