Effects of precipitating high energy particles in the mesosphere: Present and future applications of the Sodankylä Ion Chemistry Model

Esa Turunen1, Thomas Ulich1,2, Pekka Verronen3, Erkki Kyrölä3

1Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, Sodankylä, Finland
2Space Physics Group, Dept. of Physical Sciences, University of Oulu, Finland
3Finnish Institute of Meteorology, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

Roughly 10 years ago a detailed ion chemical scheme, with 55 ions, was formulated and coded as the Sodankylä Ion Chemistry model (SIC) for studies of the lower ionosphere. A major revision of the SIC model was made during the last two years in a collaborative effort of the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. This revision included adding effects of photodissociation of neutrals, relevant neutral chemistry of nitric oxides, ozone and other related constituents. Furthermore, selected neutral constituents are now explicitly modelled. Our aim is to use the model, together with future and existing satellite and ground-based data (e.g. ENVISAT-1), in order to quantify the effect of precipitating high energy particles on the neutral atmospheric composition. In this paper examples of present and possibilities of future applications of the SIC model are described.