Comprehensive understanding of the processes of the Earth’s upper atmosphere is required in order to ensure the effective operation and management of a number of systems impacted by space weather. One aspect of the threat of space weather is the potential impact on the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), these systems are now embedded in our day-to-day life. Small scale structure in the high latitude ionosphere can cause scintillation of signals which can have an impact on critical systems including reducing positional accuracy and can limit availability of GNSS.

The need for accurate forecasts have required the development of physics based data assimilation models, such as the University of Birmingham’s AENeAS model.