edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26064 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T19:55:42.815784 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7zw1qv2 https://doi.org/10.5065/axkv-me49 https Related Dataset #1 Data repository for Lin et al. (2022) "Thermospheric neutral density variation during the "SpaceX" storm: Implications from physics-based whole geospace modeling" Thermospheric neutral density variation during the "SpaceX" storm: Implications from physics-based whole geospace modeling 2022-12-29T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7zw1qv2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2022SW003254 Lin, Dong author Wang, Wenbin author Garcia-Sage, K. author Yue, J. author Merkin, V. author McInerney, Joseph author Pham, Kevin author Sorathia, K. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher The Starlink satellites launched on 3 February 2022 were lost before they fully arrived in their designated orbits. The loss was attributed to two moderate geomagnetic storms that occurred consecutively on 3-4 February. We investigate the thermospheric neutral mass density variation during these storms with the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model, a first-principles, fully coupled geospace model. Simulated neutral density enhancements are validated by Swarm satellite measurements at the altitude of 400-500 km. Comparison with standalone TIEGCM and empirical NRLMSIS 2.0 and DTM-2013 models suggests better performance by MAGE in predicting the maximum density enhancement and resolving the gradual recovery process. Along the Starlink satellite orbit in the middle thermosphere (similar to 200 km altitude), MAGE predicts up to 150% density enhancement near the second storm peak while standalone TIEGCM, NRLMSIS 2.0, and DTM-2013 suggest only similar to 50% increase. MAGE also suggests altitudinal, longitudinal, and latitudinal variability of storm-time percentage density enhancement due to height dependent Joule heating deposition per unit mass, thermospheric circulation changes, and traveling atmospheric disturbances. This study demonstrates that a moderate storm can cause substantial density enhancement in the middle thermosphere. Thermospheric mass density strongly depends on the strength, timing, and location of high-latitude energy input, which cannot be fully reproduced with empirical models. A physics-based, fully coupled geospace model that can accurately resolve the high-latitude energy input and its variability is critical to modeling the dynamic response of thermospheric neutral density during storm time. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation