Identification

Title

A fast, parameterized model of upper atmospheric ionization rates, chemistry, and conductivity

Abstract

Rapid specification of ionization rates and ion densities in the upper atmosphere is essential when many evaluations of the atmospheric state must be performed, as in global studies or analyses of on-orbit satellite data. Though many models of the upper atmosphere perform the necessary specification, none provide the flexibility of computational efficiency, high accuracy, and complete specification. We introduce a parameterized, updated, and extended version of the GLobal AirglOW (GLOW) model, called GLOWfast, that significantly reduces computation time and provides comparable accuracy in upper atmospheric ionization, densities, and conductivity. We extend GLOW capabilities by (1) implementing the nitric oxide empirical model, (2) providing a new model component to calculate height-dependent conductivity profiles from first principles for the 80–200 km region, and (3) reducing computation time. The computational improvement is achieved by replacing the full, two-stream electron transport algorithm with two parameterizations: (1) photoionization (QRJ from Solomon and Qian (2005)) and (2) electron impact ionization (F0810 from Fang et al. (2008, 2010)). We find that GLOWfast accurately reproduces ionization rates, ion and electron densities, and Pedersen and Hall conductivities independent of the background atmospheric state and input solar and auroral activity. Our results suggest that GLOWfast may be even more appropriate for low characteristic energy auroral conditions. We demonstrate in a suite of 3028 case studies that GLOWfast can be used to rapidly calculate the ionization of the upper atmosphere with few limitations on background and input conditions. We support these results through comparisons with electron density profiles from COSMIC.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d72n53gq

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-06-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2015 American Geophysical Union.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2023-08-18T19:00:03.214122

Metadata language

eng; USA