CMR Header

CCMC Metadata Registry (CMR)

Menu Page

Go to:

CMR: View Simulation Model Info

WAM-IPE (v1.0)

Whole Atmosphere Model and Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics model

Model Description

WAM-IPE provides neutral atmospheric parameters from the ground to the upper thermosphere at around 500 km. 

WAM was developed based on the spectral version of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS) used for medium-range numerical weather prediction. The WAM system is used to quantify the impact of lower atmosphere weather on the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, as well as the response to solar and geomagnetic activity. The thermospheric parameters calculated by WAM are fed into IPE for calculating the responses in the ionosphere. The ESMF 3D re-gridding capability is used for exchanging the information. IPE is a time-dependent and global three-dimensional model that provides densities, temperatures, and velocity of ions and electron from 90 km to several Earth radii. The International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) coordinate system is used to accurately represent Earth’s magnetic field. The fieldline calculations are based on the Field Line Interhemispheric Plasma (FLIP) model. The ExB transport is applied zonally and meridionally across Earth’s magnetic field. The magnetic field line or flux-tube coordinate system is designed for seamless perpendicular plasma transport pole-to-pole. In the operational setting, both models use the Weimer empirical ion convection model and TIROS auroral empirical model, both driven by the solar wind data, to specify the external energy input from the magnetosphere.

Model Figure(s) :

Model Inputs Description

Inputs for Weimer model: 
Interplanetary magnetic field, By and Bz, in nT Solar wind density and speed, ρ and v, in cm-3 and km s-1

Model Outputs Description

Primary timed-dependent output fields, specified in latitude, longitude, and pressure level:
Geopotential height: Height of pressure surfaces (cm)
Temperatures: Neutral, ion, electron (K)
Neutral winds: zonal, meridional, (cm s-1), vertical (s-1)
Composition: O, O2, NO, N(4S), N(2D) (mass mixing ratios - dimensionless)
Ion and electron densities: O+, O2+, Ne (cm-3), (NO+ is calculated from Ne - (O+ + O2+))
Electric potential: (V)
Ion drift

Model Caveats


	
	
	
	

Change Log


	
	 
	

Model Acknowledgement/Publication Policy (if any)


	
	
	

Model Domains:

Global_Ionosphere
Thermosphere

Space Weather Impacts:

Ionosphere variability (navigation, communications)
Atmosphere variability (satellite/debris drag)

Phenomena :

Simulation Type(s):

Physics-based

Temporal Dependence Possible? (whether the code results depend on physical time?)

true

Model is available at?

CCMC

Source code of the model is publicly available?

false

CCMC Model Status (e.g. onboarding, use in production, retired, only hosting output, only source is available):

resultOnly

Code Language:

Fortran

Regions (this is automatically mapped based on model domain):

Earth.NearSurface.Ionosphere
Earth.NearSurface.Thermosphere

Contacts :

Jia.Yue, ModelHostContact
Tzu-Wei.Fang, ModelContact
Adam.Kubaryk, ModelContact

Acknowledgement/Institution :

Relevant Links :

Operational WAM-IPE page at SWPC: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/wam-ipe
Publicly Available 1-year worth of WAM-IPE runs output between July 2021 to July 2022 from SWPC (hosted at the CCMC): https://ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov/external-runs/swpc/ionosphere/WAM-IPE/WAM-IPE-July2021-22/index.html

Publications :

  • Fang, T.-W., R. Akmaev, R. A. Stoneback, T. Fuller-Rowell, H. Wang, and F. Wu (2016), Impact of midnight thermosphere dynamics on the equatorial ionospheric vertical drifts, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 121, 4858–4868
  • Fang, T.-W., T. Fuller-Rowell, V. Yudin, T. Matsuo, R. Viereck (2018), Quantifying the sources of ionosphere day-to-day variability, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 123
  • Fuller-Rowell, T. J., R. Akmaev, F. Wu, A. Anghel, N. Maruyama, D. N. Anderson, M. V. Codrescu, M. Iredell, S. Moorthi, H.-M. Juang, Y.-T. Hou, and G. Millward (2008), Impact of terrestrial weather on the upper atmosphere, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L09808
  • Fuller-Rowell, T., Z. Li, T.-W. Fang, M. Fedrizzi, M. MacCandless, E. Sutton, S. Iyer, M. Jah, A. Medema (2021), Neutral Density for Satellite Drag and Space Traffic Management from an Operational Physics-Based Model, Abstract SA24B-09 presented at 2021 AGU Fall Meeting, 13-17 Dec
  • Maruyama, N., Y.-Y. Sun, P. G. Richards, J. Middlecoff, T.-W. Fang, T. J. Fuller-Rowell, R. A. Akmaev, J.-Y. Liu, and C. Valladares (2016), A new source of the midlatitude ionospheric peak density structure revealed by a new Ionosphere-Plasmasphere model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43
  • Fang, T.-W., Kubaryk, A., Goldstein, D., Li, Z., Fuller-Rowell, T., Millward, G., et al. (2022). Space Weather Environment During the SpaceX Starlink Satellite Loss in February 2022. Space Weather, 20, e2022SW003193.
  • Model Access Information :

    Linked to Other Spase Resource(s) (example: another SimulationModel) :

    CMR Footer

    Curator: Chiu Wiegand | NASA Official: Dr. Masha Kuznetsova | Privacy and Security Notices | Accessibility | CCMC Data Collection Consent Agreement