Changes in the Thermosphere/Ionosphere over the Past Century: Results from Whole Atmosphere Model Simulations

For many decades, numerous studies have taken place to examine the change of the earth's atmosphere in the past century and forward into the century ahead. A subset of these studies have concentrated on the upper part of the atmosphere including the thermosphere and ionosphere. One such study is Roble and Dickinson (1989) in which the effects of double carbon dioxide and methane were shown to significantly change the upper atmosphere. Here we continue such studies using time slice simulations from the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model - eXtended (WACCM-X). We examine the time period from the 1920s to 2010s and report on changes in the mean structure of the thermosphere and ionosphere as seen by the model.