Fundamentals of Numerical Modeling of the Mid-latitude Ionosphere

The ionosphere is one of the key components of the near-Earth’s space environment and has a practical consequence to the human society as a nearest region of the space environment to the Earth. Therefore, it becomes essential to specify and forecast the state of the ionosphere using both the observations and numerical models. In particular, numerical modeling of the ionosphere is a prerequisite not only for better understanding of the physical processes occurring within the ionosphere but also for the specification and forecast of the space weather. There are several approaches for modeling the ionosphere, including data-based empirical modeling, physics-based theoretical modeling and data assimilation modeling. In this review, these three types of the ionospheric model are briefly introduced with recently available models. And among those approaches, fundamental aspects of the physics-based ionospheric model will be described using the basic equations governing the mid-latitude ionosphere. Then a numerical solution of the equations will be discussed with required boundary conditions.