Magnetopause Challenge Introduction

Back in 2008, we started looking at global magnetosphere models in comparison with the Shue et al (1998) magnetopause model. At that time, two-hour intervals of successively stronger southward solar wind B_z were used to run the models SWMF, OpenGGCM, GUMICS and LFM.
The models were found to show magnetopause standoff distances that could vary by over one R_E. It was concluded that the presence of a ring currenet increases the predicted magnetopause standoff. However, the inclusion of a ring current increases the standoff only by about 1/2 R_E and thus does not account for the total difference (between the SWMF and OpenGGCM models). Other factore are inner (near-Earth) boundary conditions such as density, temperature and the position of the boundary itself, that vary between the models. A sensitivity study was started but yielded inconclusive results.
A summary of some of those efforts are included in L. Rastaetter's presentation at the 2015 GEM Summer Workshop.

GEM Workshop sessions:

2015 Summer Workshop: Metrics and Validation Focus Group, Wed. 10:30 - 12:15

More recently, the focus shifted from modeled conditions to real events when Magnetopause crossings were included as one observable parameter in the GEM magnetosphere modeling challenge.
Events included a day during the Halloween storm (2003/10/29 06:00-2003/10/30 06:00 UT) and 36 hours during the AGU storm (2006/12/14 12:00 -- 2016/12/16 00:00 UT), featuring multiple magnetopause crossings by GOES and LANL geosynchronous satellites.
Recent advances in data preparation and visualization of data-model comparison time series allow for event-based analysis of magnetopause crossings and the calculation of skill scores similar to the dBH/dt study that was completed in 2013 (see Rastaetter's presenation at the 2015 GEM workshop).
On this page we will post events that feature multi-spcaecraft magnetopause crossings that we may include in addition to the geosynchronous satellites that encountered the magnetopause during the above-mentioned challenge events (see presentation by Collado-Vega and Sibeck and by Rastaetter (additional slides), also presented during the 2015 GEM meeting).

Please send questions, comments and suggestions to

Last updated: June 19, 2015 by Lutz Rastaetter