The NCAR Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) now extends from the ground to the upper thermosphere, with the finite volumn dynamcal core used by the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), the interacting MOZART module resolving most known neutral and ion chemistry in the middle and upper atmosphere, and photolysis and photo-ionization. Upper atmosphere processes, such as non local thermal equilibrium (non-LTE) radiative transfer, auroral heating, ion drag, and molecular diffusion of major and minor species, are adapted from the NCAR thermosphere, ionosphere, mesosphere, and electrodynamics general circulation model (TIME-GCM). In this study we evaluate the model performance in the thermosphere, by comparing compositional, thermal, and wind structures from a WACCM simulation of a model year under solar medium condition to those from TIME-GCM. Short and long term variabilities in the thermosphere from the WACCM simulation are also examined.