Open AccessIonospheric Weather Forecasting on the Horizon
Author(s) -
Schunk Robert,
Scherliess Ludger,
Sojka Jan J.,
Thompson Donald C.,
Zhu Lie
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1029/2004sw000138
Subject(s) - data assimilation , ionosphere , meteorology , environmental science , weather forecasting , assimilation (phonology) , computer science , geography , geology , geophysics , linguistics , philosophy
In an effort to mitigate the adverse effects of the ionosphere on military and civilian operations, specification and forecast models are being developed that employ state‐of‐the‐art data assimilation techniques. Utah State University has recently developed two data assimilation models for the ionosphere as part of the USU Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (USU GAIM) program. One of these models is currently being implemented at the Air Force Weather Agency for operational use. The USU‐GAIM models are also being used for scientific studies, and this should lead to a dramatic advance in our understanding of ionospheric physics similar to what occurred in meteorology and oceanography after the introduction of data assimilation models in those fields.