Earth TIME-GCM

Response of the thermosphere to the November 2004 magnetic storm

ASTRA is working to answer the fundamental science question “How does the thermosphere respond to magnetic storms?” We are particularly interested in understanding the response of the neutral composition.
 
The figure compares changes in the column O/N2 measured by GUVI (top panel) with that simulated by the TIME-GCM (lower panel) driven by AMIE. Using AMIE to specify the high latitude convection and particle precipitation significantly improves the fidelity of the TIME-GCM simulations. The model accurately reproduces the GUVI observations and the next step is to use our model post-processor to reveal the driver mechanisms.