MIAC: Global-Continuous-Complete Solutions of the Ionospheric Electrodynamics

What is the energy flow between the ionosphere (I) and the magnetosphere (M)?  This apparently simple question involves some serious observational challenges since the M-I system is highly dynamic and structured.  At ionospheric altitudes features range in scale size from hundreds of meters to thousands of kilometers and the entire system reconfigures in as little as 10 min.  The observations must therefore provide global and continuous coverage with a spatial and temporal resolution better than 100 meter and a cadence of 1 min.  This is not currently possible.  We are forced to perform spatial interpolations over data gaps and make assumptions that features with scale sizes smaller than our observational coverage can be ignored.  In this paper we show a global and continuous solution based on SuperMAG, SuperDARN and AMPERE data and we discuss limitations of these solutions by comparing with LEO satellite observations.