The Research Unit (Forschungsgruppe) "Magnetosphere, Ionosphere, Plasmasphere, Thermosphere as a Coupled System (MIPT)" is funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) .
The overarching science objective of the research unit is to better understand how the magnetosphere, ionosphere, plasmasphere, and thermosphere are coupled to each other. The complexity of this system, which covers altitudes from tens to tens of thousands of km and time scales from minutes to decades, requires an interdisciplinary team with specialists in different domains, expertise in modeling and observations, as well as established collaborative ties to the international community.
The MIPT subproject P2, entitled "Modelling and prediction of the electron density distribution in the ionosphere", aims to reproduce almost instantaneously the state of the electron density distribution in the ionosphere with models. A particular strength of the proposal is the inclusion of a large amount of data from geodetic space observation techniques and other space missions dealing with the upper atmosphere. The modelling is supported by machine learning.
As part of the project, the DLR Institute SO investigates the variability of the ionosphere driven by the solar wind and shedding light on the coupling processes in the thermosphere and ionosphere resulting from the solar wind energy input, which lead to changes in the ionosphere.
In addition to DLR-SO, the following institutes are involved in the project:
• Technische Universität München (TUM) - Projektleitung
