Global Ionospheric Forecasting Techniques (GIFT) Workshop

David Anderson, SEC/NOAA, danderson@sec.noaa.gov
Timothy Fuller-Rowell, SEC/NOAA, tjfr@sec.noaa.gov
Jan Sojka, Utah State University, sojka@cc.usu.edu
Front Range Theatre, 1:15-3:15
Wednesday, June 20, 2001

The GIFT workshop was initiated at the 1997 CEDAR meeting to address issues in modeling the Earth's ionosphere. Past years have focused on mid-latitude variability, forecasting the low latitude/equatorial ionosphere, and observation and modeling of the Auroral E-region.

This year the GIFT workshop addresses the global ionosphere and thermosphere from a different perspective. Because major new initiatives are being undertaken to develop global data assimilation models, this year's GIFT workshop will feature tutorials on ionospheric and thermospheric data assimilation techniques, in general, and the use of Kalman Filter approaches, in particular. The tutorials will be followed by general discussions by all participants with the goal of understanding how and why data assimilation schemes are so important in specifying and forecasting the global ionosphere and thermosphere.

1. Introduction - Jan Sojka
2. Tutorial on Kalman Filter fundamentals - Ludger Scherliess
3. Tutorial on Kalman Filter techniques applied to the neutral atmosphere - Cliff Minter
4. General Discussion - All

The agenda will include ample time for discussions and we anticipate that the ideas that result from these discussions will form the basis for an ongoing, enthusiastic exchange among the participants. All interested CEDAR attendees are welcome.