To address challenges of assessing capabilities of space weather modeling, the CCMC (Community Coordinated Modeling Center) is leading a newly established “International Forum for Space Weather Modeling Capabilities Assessment.”

The specification and prediction of density changes in the thermosphere is a key challenge for space weather observations and modeling, because it is one result of complex interactions between the Sun and the terrestrial atmosphere, and also because it is of operational importance for tracking ob

Solar irradiance models indicate that irradiance variations are dominated by changes in disk-coverage of magnetic structures, whose brightness is thought to be determined by their size and average magnetic flux density.

Stan Solomon et al, dicuss a new modeling capability that self-consistently couples physics-based magnetospheric 18 electron precipitation with its impact on the ionosphere, representing a significant improvement over previous models.

There are still uncertainties regarding the formation mechanisms for storm-enhanced density (SED) in the high and subauroral latitude ionosphere.