Real Time Prediction of High-Latitude Ionosphere Electrodynamics

"A fundamental result of the solar wind's interaction with the Earth is the generation of electric fields and currents in the high-latitude ionosphere, which in combination with the geomagnetic field, control the dynamics of the near Earth space and plasmaenvironment. This "space weather" that results can have a significant impact on military and civilian communications, radar, electric power distribution, and navigation systems, including GPS receivers. The proposed project will demonstrate a prototypedesign for a real time forecast of electrodynamic parameters in the high-latitude ionosphere, namely, the electric fields, currents, and Joule heating, as well as associated geomagnetic effects. The prediction will be obtained by means of the real timedata stream from a solar wind monitor at the L1 orbit. The objectives will be obtained by a combination of a "tilted phase front" propagation model for the interplanetary magnetic field, an empirical model of ionospheric electric potential, and a similarmodel for field-aligned currents (FAC), which is base on magnetic Euler potentials. As there does not exist a model for the ionospheric conductivity with the desired accuracy, the FAC model will be used in a innovative technique to compute the desiredparameters without requiring the conductivity. The proposed activity will produce prototype programs which will provide a solid foundation for the Phase II design of an accurate, and effi