Atmosphere, Ionosphere, and Magnetosphere (AIM) Section

The Atmosphere, Ionosphere, and Magnetosphere section of HAO studies the structure and dynamics of the Earth's mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere; their response to variable solar radiative and particulate emissions; their coupling with the lower atmosphere; and related planetary phenomena. The section carries out its mission by developing and utilizing simulation models of physical and chemical processes, by carrying out observational programs, by interpreting model results and observations jointly, and by providing information and data services to the scientific community.

Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE)

The AMIE procedure is an optimally constrained, weighted least-squares fit of electric potential distribution to diverse types of atmospheric observations. Knowledge of these distributions is important in many areas of magnetospheric, ionospheric, and thermospheric physics.

Coupling Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR)

CEDAR is a major NSF-sponsored international research program in the upper atmosphere. CEDAR is a world-wide community of ~1600 persons, and has an associated CEDAR Database devoted to data from ~82 ground-based instruments, geophysical indices, model outputs, and empirical models. The community pages include job announcements, reports, and archives of the CEDAR Post. The annual CEDAR Workshop draws ~300 participants, including ~125 students, for individual workshops including a student workshop, tutorials and student poster competitions within the poster sessions. A CEDAR Prize Lecturer is picked every year to speak at the meeting.

Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM)

CISM is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center (STC). The goal of the CISM project is to create a physics-based numerical simulation model that describes the space environment from the Sun to the Earth, which will help to understand our dynamic sun-earth system and how it affects life and society.

Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET)

HAO sceintists are worked with the COMET program to develop an instructional web module on the "Physics of the aurora: earth systems"

Early Polar Cap Observatory (EPCO)

Resolute, Canada (75N) is the site chosen for the deployment of the National Science Foundation Advance Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR). AMISR is a state of the art phase array radar, which allows fast electronic steering of the radar beam to track fast moving auroral features. HAO operates a Fabry-Perot Interferometer at EPCO to measure mesosphere and thermosphere neutral winds and temperatures in support of the AMISR project. Resolute is located deep inside the polar cap, which is an ideal location for study of the magnetosphere and ionosphere interaction. Resolute FPI data are available from the CEDAR database.

Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM)

AIM scientists participate in the NSF-Atmoshperic Sciences sponsored GEM program, the purpose of which, is "to support basic research into the dynamical and structural properties of geospace, leading to the construction of a global geospace general circulation (GGCM) model with predictive capability."

Global Scale Wave Model (GSWM)

The GSWM solves the linearized and extended Navier-Stokes equations for steady-state global temperature and wind perturbations. GSWM may be used to calculate an "unforced" planetary wave response for a specified period and zonal wavenumber, or the thermally-driven response for either a diurnal or semidiurnal atmospheric tide.

Scientific Committee On Solar Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP)

SCOSTEP organizes and conducts international solar-terrestrial programs (STP) programs of finite duration in cooperation with other International Council For Science (ICSU) bodies. Results from these programs are shared with the community of SCOSTEP scientists by joining in conducting meetings, conferences, and workshops and by publishing newsletters, handbooks and special journal issues.Dr. Gang Lu, HAO scientist, serves as SCOSTEP Scientific Secretary and heads the SCOSTEP Secretariat housed at NCAR/HAO.

Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Models (TGCMs)

The NCAR TGCM's are three-dimensional, time-dependent models of the EARTH's neutral upper atmosphere. The model uses a finite differencing technique to obtain a self-consistent solution for the coupled, nonlinear equations of hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, continuity of the neutral gas and for the coupling between the dynamics and the composition.

TIMED Doppler Interferometer (TIDI)

Part of a NASA mission to study the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED). The TIDI instrument is one of four instruments on board the TIMED satellite. TIDI is a limb-scan Fabry-Perot Interferometer, which measures the neutral winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) by monitoring the Doppler shift in the airglow induced by the winds. TIDI data are being used for MLT tides and planetary waves studies. HAO/NCAR is the PI institute of the TIDI project. Our partners on the project are the Space Physics Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan and Northwest Research Associates. We distribute neutral wind data and provide assistances to TIDI data users.

Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED)

The TIMED satellite is a NASA Office of Space Sciences Sun-Earth Connection (SEC) mission to study the mesosphere and lower thermosphere from about 60 to 180 km altitude, and understand how solar variability and lower atmosphere processes combine to make this one of the most dynamic and variable regions of the terrestrial atmosphere.

Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM)

WACCM is a comprehensive numerical model, spanning the range of altitude from the Earth's surface to the thermosphere. The development of WACCM is an inter-divisional collaboration that unifies certain aspects of the upper atmospheric modeling of HAO, the middle atmosphere modeling of ACD, and the tropospheric modeling of CGD, using the NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM) as a common numerical framework.