Development of a middle and low latitude theoretical ionospheric model and an observation system data assimilation experiment

On the basis of previous work, we develop a middle and low latitude theoretical ionospheric model in this paper, named Theoretical Ionospheric Model of the Earth in the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (TIME-IGGCAS). TIME-IGGCAS solves the equations of mass continuity, motion and energy of electron and ions self-consistently and uses an eccentric dipole field approximation to the Earth’s magnetic field. We combine the Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches in the model and take account of the plasma E×B drift velocity. Calculation results reveal that the model is steady and credible and can reproduce most large-scale features of ionosphere. By using TIME-IGGCAS, we carried out an observation system data assimilation experiment. Assimilation results show that the E×B drift velocity can be accurately estimated by ingesting the observed foF2 and hmF2 into the model applying nonlinear least-square fit method. We suggest that this work is of great significance in the development of ionospheric data assimilation model to give better nowcast and forecast of ionosphere.