Publications related to the GRACE Missions (no abstracts)

• Sorted by Date • Sorted by Last Name of First Author •

Accuracy evaluation and adaptability analysis of NRLMSIS 2.1 model during different geomagnetic disturbances at different orbital heights

Li, Peicheng, Zhang, Bingbing, Shen, Yi, Li, Hongrui, Li, Mengyang, and Liu, Zijian, 2026. Accuracy evaluation and adaptability analysis of NRLMSIS 2.1 model during different geomagnetic disturbances at different orbital heights. Advances in Space Research, 78(2):1404–1426, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2026.04.051.

Downloads

• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System  • by the DOI System  •

@ARTICLE{2026AdSpR..78.1404L,
       author = {{Li}, Peicheng and {Zhang}, Bingbing and {Shen}, Yi and {Li}, Hongrui and {Li}, Mengyang and {Liu}, Zijian},
        title = "{Accuracy evaluation and adaptability analysis of NRLMSIS 2.1 model during different geomagnetic disturbances at different orbital heights}",
      journal = {Advances in Space Research},
     keywords = {Thermospheric density, Geomagnetic storm, NRLMSIS 2.1 model, GRACE-FO satellite, Swarm-C satellite},
         year = 2026,
        month = jul,
       volume = {78},
       number = {2},
        pages = {1404-1426},
     abstract = "{Thermospheric density is a critical parameter for understanding the
        space environment. Despite extensive research and the
        development of various atmospheric models, their accuracy
        remains limited, particularly during geomagnetic storms when
        model deviations can exceed 100\%. This study systematically
        evaluates the performance of the NRLMSIS 2.1 model during five
        geomagnetic storm events of varying intensity (weak, moderate,
        strong, severe, and extreme) from 2018 to 2024. The evaluation
        utilizes thermospheric density data derived from GRACE-FO (at
        approximately 500 km altitude) and Swarm-C (at approximately 450
        km altitude) satellite accelerometers, focusing on the model's
        response characteristics at different altitudes and phases of
        geomagnetic storms. The results reveal significant systematic
        biases in the NRLMSIS 2.1 model during storm periods.
        Specifically, the model generally underestimates density peaks
        during the main phase and overestimates density during the
        initial phase, and tends to underestimate during the recovery
        phase due to thermal inertia. Furthermore, the model
        inadequately captures the high-latitude density enhancements and
        rapid diffusion processes of atmospheric density at high
        latitudes. We also find that the discrepancies between the
        modeled and observed densities become substantially larger
        during intense and extreme geomagnetic storm events, indicating
        that the NRLMSIS 2.1 model has difficulty capturing rapid and
        highly localized storm-time thermospheric responses. Moreover,
        altitude-dependent analysis reveals that the larger absolute
        errors at 450 km result from a more severe systematic background
        overestimation combined with atmospheric density scaling
        effects, rather than inherently poorer model applicability. In
        conclusion, the NRLMSIS 2.1 model exhibits considerable
        limitations in accurately characterizing the magnitude, spatial
        structure, and temporal delay of thermospheric responses during
        geomagnetic storms.}",
          doi = {10.1016/j.asr.2026.04.051},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2026AdSpR..78.1404L},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

Generated by bib2html_grace.pl (written by Patrick Riley modified for this page by Volker Klemann) on Mon Aug 24, 2026 17:14:25

---

Mon Aug 24, F. Flechtner