CMIT

There are several boundary layers to take into consideration in space physics near the Earth. The solar wind generates a shock at the outter boundary of the magnetosphere. The inner magnetosphere affects auroral activity at the ionosphere boundary, which drives certain processes at the thermosphere. In order to better understand these interactions, we have created the Coupled Magnetosphere Ionosphere Thermosphere (CMIT) model.

CMIT makes use of the following models:

• LFM - magnetosphere solver for the ideal MHD equations
• Rice Convection Model (RCM)
• TIEGCM - Thermosphere & Ionosphere solver

CMIT version 1.0 uses an OpenMP version of the LFM for parallelism on multicore systems. CMIT version 2.0 is in active development using an MPI version of the LFM for message passing on a variety multiprocessor supercomputers.

Model Coupling

We couple the LFM Magnetosphere model with the TIEGCM Thermosphere model:

Publications

• Lyon, J G, J A Fedder and C M Mobarry, "The Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) global MHD magnetosphere simulation code", J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 66/15-16, 1333-1350, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2004.03.020, 2004 google scholar
• Wiltberger, M., Wang, W., Burns, A.G., Solomon, S.C., Lyon, J.G., Goodrich, C.C. "Initial results from the coupled magnetosphere ionosphere thermosphere model: Magnetospheric and ionospheric responses", J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 66/15-16, 1411-1424.
• Goodrich, C.C., A.L. Sussman, J.G. Lyon, M. Shay and P. Cassak, "The CISM Code Coupling Strategy", J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 66/15-16, 1469, 2004 google scholar
• Luhmann, J.G., S.C. Solomon, J.A. Linker, J.G. Lyon, Z. Mikic, D. Odstrcil, W. Wang and M. Wiltberger, "Coupled model simulation of a Sun-to-Earth space weather event", J. of Atm. Sol-Terr. Phys., 66, 1243, 2004.
• Wang, W., M. Wiltberger, A.G. Burns, S.C. Solomon, T.L. Killeen, N. Maruyama, and J.G. Lyon, "Initial Results from the Coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model: Thermosphere-Ionosphere Responses", J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 66/15-16, 1425, 2004
• Toffoletto, F.R., S. Sazykin, R.W. Spiro, R.A. Wolf and J.G. Lyon, "RCM Meets LFM: Initial Results of One-Way Coupling", J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 66/15-16, 1361, 2004