Comparison of MAGE to EISCAT and SuperDARN measurements

Kurzfassung

Physics-based geospace simulations of the coupled Magnetosphere-Thermosphere-Ionosphere system promise to improve the modelling of space weather effects on the Earth system. Recently, a public version of the MAGE geospace model was released. The thermosphere-ionosphere component of this MAGE version is the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIE-GCM). We evaluate the MAGE simulation results against electron density measurements with the EISCAT VHF incoherent scatter radar and polar convection potential measurements by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). Since geospace models are computationally expensive, we focus on two EISCAT campaigns for this first validation: To assess the quiet-time representation, we compare model results and measurements on 7 July 2020. For an evaluation of geomagnetically disturbed conditions, the 16 May 2024 is analyzed, for which a strong particle precipitation event was identified. As a reference, we conducted two TIE-GCM runs driven by the empirical Heelis convection model for these days. Initial results promise a significant improvement in model-measurement agreement. MAGE is shown to reproduce a localized particle precipitation event detected in EISCAT measurements with moderate to strong correlation.