Modeling ionospheric outflows and their impact on the magnetosphere, initial results

Ionospheric outflow has been shown to be a significant contributor to the plasma population of the magnetosphere during active geomagnetic conditions. We present the results of new efforts to model the source and effects of out-flowing plasma in the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF). In particular, we develop and use the Polar Wind Outflow Model (PWOM), a field-aligned, multifluid, multifield line polar wind code to simulate the ionospheric outflow. The PWOM is coupled to the ionosphere electrodynamics and global magnetosphere components of the SWMF, so we can calculate the outflow and its resulting impact on magnetospheric composition and dynamics. By including the outflow as part of a coupled system, we study the consequences of outflow on the larger space environment system. We present our methodology for the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, as well as the effect of outflow on the magnetosphere during two geomagnetic storms. Moreover, we explore the use of multispecies MHD to track the resulting plasma composition in the magnetosphere. We find that, by including ionospheric outflow during geomagnetic storms, we can reduce the RMS error in the simulated magnetic field as compared with various GOES satellites by as much as 50%. Additionally, we find that the outflow causes a strong decrease in Dst and in the cross-polar cap potential.