Date of Award

3-14-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Engineering Physics

First Advisor

Ariel O. Acebal, PhD.

Abstract

The GAIM-GM model assimilates observed data and ingests it into the IFM background ionosphere, which is highly dependent on Kp and F10.7. The Air Force Weather Agency typically uses a daily Kp and F10.7 when running the IFM. This study used Kp and F10.7 values at 1-hourly, 3-hourly, and daily cadence intervals in the IFM and the resulting GAIM-GM model total electron content (TEC) output was verified using skill scores. This study showed that while the IFM produced different output for different cadence configurations, the GAIM-GM model output showed little or no variation. It also showed that when ingested data was suddenly removed from the GAIM-GM model, skill scores decayed to those of the model's background ionosphere at the same rate, regardless of cadence configuration. In addition, alternate sources of Kp and F10.7 data were investigated, to include data from the ACE satellite as an alternate to Kp, and F11.1 data as an alternate to F10.7. While the use of ACE Kp data had little effect on GAIM-GM model output, the use of F11.1 data showed improvement in three of the five periods tested, with a reduction in root mean square error of up to 1.17 TEC units.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENP-14-M-17

DTIC Accession Number

ADA600311

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