Atmosphere - Ionosphere - Magnetosphere (AIM) scientists working with members of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) have completed development of the second generation of the Coupled Magnetosphere Ionosphere Thermosphere (CMIT) model. In this version of the model the Lyon - Fedder - Mobarry global MHD magnetospheric (LFM) model is coupled with the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model (TIEGCM) to provide the magnetosphere with a more sophisticated conductivity model and the thermosphere - ionosphere systems with high time resolution particles fluxes and ion drift paths. The major improvement over the previous version of this model is that it also allows for electrodynamic coupling between the high latitude forcing from the magnetosphere and the ionospheric equatorial electrojet.

This model forms one of the core components of the physics based numerical modeling chain that is being developed by the CISM program. This chain includes models cover the origination of the space weather drivers in the solar corona, their propagation through interplanetary space and finally their impact on geospace. Early scientific results from CMIT 2.0 have shown the model is capable of reproducing the temporal and spatial variations total electron content (TEC) measured by Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) during magnetospheric storms. Comparison with radar observations made at the Jicmarca indicates that electrodynamic forcing from the magnetosphere at high latitudes improves the agreement with observations. In addition to these scientific highlights this model has the capabilities to predict quantities, e.g. magnetopause location, NmF2, etc, of significant interest to the space weather community.

This model will be made available to the geoscience community through a collaboration with the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Members of the scientific community will be able to select time intervals of interest and examine models results using visualization and analysis tools like CISM-DX which was also developed, in part, by AIM scientists. We also have several improvements to this model planned. On the ionospheric side we will work on including mass outflow from the ionosphere into the magnetosphere which is an important source of magnetospheric mass especially during disturbed conditions. The magnetospheric developments will include utilization of MPI based parallel version of the code for improved resolution and inclusion of inner magnetosphere model for better description of the important region two current systems.

Figure Caption: This scientific visualization shows results from the CMIT 2.0 model for a magnetic storm which occurred on December 14-15, 2006. The visualization begins in the magnetotail showing the density of plasma in equatorial and merdional cut planes with the set of last closed field lines shown in blue. As it moves into the magnetosphere the electron density variations in the upper levels of the ionosphere become visible and the impact of the auroral forcing becomes clear. Once the perspective moves into geosynchronous orbit we see the model predictions for the variations in the electron density near the F2 peak and then finally the movie shows the effect of this geomagnetic storm on the neutral temperatures in a the thermosphere. Accurate modeling of these types of events is essential for creating reliable space weather predictions.