The Horizontal Wind Model (HWM) has been updated in the thermosphere with new observations and formulation changes. These new data are ground‐based 630 nm Fabry‐Perot Interferometer (FPI) measurements in the equatorial and polar regions, as well as cross‐track winds from the Gravity Field and Steady State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite. The GOCE wind observations provide valuable wind data in the twilight regions. The ground‐based FPI measurements fill latitudinal data gaps in the prior observational database. Construction of this reference model also provides the opportunity to compare these new measurements. The resulting update (HWM14) provides an improved time‐dependent, observationally based, global empirical specification of the upper atmospheric general circulation patterns and migrating tides. In basic agreement with existing accepted theoretical knowledge of the thermosphere general circulation, additional calculations indicate that the empirical wind specifications are self‐consistent with climatological ionosphere plasma distribution and electric field patterns.

NRLMSIS® 2.0 is an empirical atmospheric model that extends from the ground to the exobase and describes the average observed behavior of temperature, eight species densities, and mass density via a parametric analytic formulation. The model inputs are location, day of year, time of day, solar activity, and geomagnetic activity. NRLMSIS 2.0 is a major, reformulated upgrade of the previous version, NRLMSISE‐00. The model now couples thermospheric species densities to the entire column, via an effective mass profile that transitions each species from the fully mixed region below ~70 km altitude to the diffusively separated region above ~200 km. Other changes include the extension of atomic oxygen down to 50 km and the use of geopotential height as the internal vertical coordinate. We assimilated extensive new lower and middle atmosphere temperature, O, and H data, along with global average thermospheric mass density derived from satellite orbits, and we validated the model against independent samples of these data. In the mesosphere and below, residual biases and standard deviations are considerably lower than NRLMSISE‐00. The new model is warmer in the upper troposphere and cooler in the stratosphere and mesosphere. In the thermosphere, N₂ and O densities are lower in NRLMSIS 2.0; otherwise, the NRLMSISE‐00 thermosphere is largely retained. Future advances in thermospheric specification will likely require new in situ mass spectrometer measurements, new techniques for species density measurement between 100 and 200 km, and the reconciliation of systematic biases among thermospheric temperature and composition data sets, including biases attributable to long‐term changes.

The lower-thermosphere–ionosphere (LTI) system consists of the upper atmosphere and the lower part of the ionosphere and as such comprises a complex system coupled to both the atmosphere below and space above. The atmospheric part of the LTI is dominated by laws of continuum fluid dynamics and chemistry, while the ionosphere is a plasma system controlled by electromagnetic forces driven by the magnetosphere, the solar wind, as well as the wind dynamo. The LTI is hence a domain controlled by many different physical processes. However, systematic in situ measurements within this region are severely lacking, although the LTI is located only 80 to 200 km above the surface of our planet. This paper reviews the current state of the art in measuring the LTI, either in situ or by several different remote-sensing methods. We begin by outlining the open questions within the LTI requiring high-quality in situ measurements, before reviewing directly observable parameters and their most important derivatives. The motivation for this review has arisen from the recent retention of the Daedalus mission as one among three competing mission candidates within the European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Explorer 10 Programme. However, this paper intends to cover the LTI parameters such that it can be used as a background scientific reference for any mission targeting in situ observations of the LTI.

By using data from multiple instruments, we investigate ionospheric/thermospheric behavior during the period from 21 to 23 June 2015, when three interplanetary shocks (IS) of different intensities arrived at Earth. The first IS was registered at 16:45 UT on 21 June and caused ~50 nT increase in the SYM‐H index. The second IS arrived at 5:45 UT on 22 June and induced an enhancement of the auroral/substorm activity that led to rapid increase of thermospheric neutral mass density and ionospheric vertical total electron content at high latitudes. Several hours later, topside electron content and electron density increased at low latitudes on the nightside. The third and much larger IS arrived at 18:30 UT on 22 June and initiated a major geomagnetic storm that lasted for many hours. The storm provoked significant effects in the thermosphere and ionosphere on both dayside and nightside. In the thermosphere, the dayside neutral mass density exceeded the quiet time levels by 300–500%, with stronger effects in the summer hemisphere. In the ionosphere, both positive and negative storm effects were observed on both dayside and nightside. We compared the ionospheric observations with simulations by the coupled Sami3 is Also a Model of the Ionosphere/Rice Convection Model (SAMI3/RCM) model. We find rather good agreement between the data and the model for the first phase of the storm, when the prompt penetration electric field (PPEF) was the principal driver. At the end of the storm main phase, when the ionospheric effects were, most likely, driven by a combination of PPEF and thermospheric winds, the modeling results agree less with the observations.

The Daedalus mission has been proposed to the European Space Agency (ESA) in response to the call for ideas for the Earth Observation program's 10th Earth Explorer. It was selected in 2018 as one of three candidates for a phase-0 feasibility study. The goal of the mission is to quantify the key electrodynamic processes that determine the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere, the gateway between the Earth's atmosphere and space. An innovative preliminary mission design allows Daedalus to access electrodynamics processes down to altitudes of 150 km and below. Daedalus will perform in situ measurements of plasma density and temperature, ion drift, neutral density and wind, ion and neutral composition, electric and magnetic fields, and precipitating particles. These measurements will unambiguously quantify the amount of energy deposited in the upper atmosphere during active and quiet geomagnetic times via Joule heating and energetic particle precipitation, estimates of which currently vary by orders of magnitude between models and observation methods. An innovation of the Daedalus preliminary mission concept is that it includes the release of subsatellites at low altitudes: combined with the main spacecraft, these subsatellites will provide multipoint measurements throughout the lower thermosphere–ionosphere (LTI) region, down to altitudes below 120 km, in the heart of the most under-explored region in the Earth's atmosphere. This paper describes Daedalus as originally proposed to the ESA.

Vertical coupling between the lower and middle thermosphere due to the eastward propagating diurnal tide with zonal wave number 3 (DE3) and the 3.5 day ultra‐fast Kelvin Wave (UFKW) is investigated using Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics‐Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (TIMED‐SABER) temperatures near 100 km and Gravity field and steady‐state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) neutral densities and zonal winds near 260 km. The analysis is performed between ±45^∘ latitude during 2011, when reliable and continuous measurements are available. With geomagnetic and solar effects removed, DE3 and the UFKW are identified as dominant sources of day‐to‐day variability at both heights. Evidence is found for the vertical propagation of DE3 and the UFKW from the lower to middle thermosphere over a range of time scales. Over 60% of the variance due to DE3 and the UFKW at 260 km is traceable to variability occurring at 100 km. The not exact agreement is thought to be due to the influences of wave‐wave interactions, zonal mean winds, dissipation, and inherent transience that interfere with one‐to‐one mapping of structures between 100 and 260 km. Spectral and temporal analyses of the SABER and GOCE data also reveal the presence of sidebands due to the modulation of DE3 by the UFKW. These secondary waves are responsible for up to 10% to 20% of the longitudinal and day‐to‐day variability. Overall, vertical propagating waves together with sidebands from DE3‐UFKW nonlinear interactions are responsible for 60% to 80% of the total variability, while geomagnetic and solar effects correlated with ap and F_10.7 account for less than 20% of the variance.