SAMI2‐PE: A model of the ionosphere including multistream interhemispheric photoelectron transport

Abstract

In order to improve model comparisons with recently improved incoherent scatter radar measurements at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory we have added photoelectron transport and energy redistribution to the two dimensional SAMI2 ionospheric model. The photoelectron model uses multiple pitch angle bins, includes effects associated with curved magnetic field lines, and uses an energy degradation procedure which conserves energy on coarse, non‐uniformly spaced energy grids. The photoelectron model generates secondary electron production rates and thermal electron heating rates which are then passed to the fluid equations in SAMI2. We then compare electron and ion temperatures and electron densities of this modified SAMI2 model with measurements of these parameters over a range of altitudes from 90 km to 1650 km (L = 1.26) over a 24 hour period. The new electron heating model is a significant improvement over the semi‐empirical model used in SAMI2. The electron temperatures above the F‐peak from the modified model qualitatively reproduce the shape of the measurements as functions of time and altitude and quantitatively agree with the measurements to within ∼30% or better during the entire day, including during the rapid temperature increase at dawn.