07/19/2022
By Lynne Schaufenbil

Congratulations are in order for PI Jiannan Tu and his Co-Iinvestigators Professors Paul Song and Ivan Galkin of UMass Lowell's Space Science Laboratory, on their recent AFRL award:

Ionospheric-Thermospheric Disturbance Specification/Forecasting Using a Next-Generation Data Constrained Simulation Model
University of Massachusetts Lowell

The project is to develop a next-generation ionosphere-thermosphere model for the purpose of specification and forecasting of ionosphere affected by processes such as atmospheric gravity waves, traveling ionospheric disturbances, equatorial spread-F, ionospheric density disturbances associated with magnetic storms. The ionosphere-thermosphere model will be integrated with real time observational data from a global network of ionospheric observatories. The research of the project will improve and validate our transformative three-dimensional global modeling framework using cutting-edge high performance computing techniques; will develop techniques for extracting the characteristics of transient ionospheric features from existing measurement networks; and will implement advanced data ingest methods, similar to those used successfully in modern weather forecasting models, to constrain the new three-dimensional numerical simulations. The outcome of the project will provide a next-generation model of the ionosphere-thermosphere specification/ forecasting system that is more reliable and accurate, especially for geomagnetic disturbed conditions. This is basic and applied research that supports a public purpose with direct benefits to Air Force Research Laboratory missions that rely on accurate specification/ forecasting of ionosphere-thermosphere system.

This is a five-year award and the total award amount is 876,433. Way to go team!