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ATM
The Auroral Transport Model (ATM) is designed to simulate the transport of suprathermal (give energy range) electrons in the atmosphere, including impact ionization and secondary/tertiary electron production, electron heating, as well as the impact excitation of neutrals. The model incorporates comprehensive ionospheric chemistry and can solve plasma density, temperature, and volume emission rates of most major auroral lines/bands, along a magnetic field line with given energetic (e.g., for e- 10eV to 1MeV) particle precipitation input on top of the field line. The model accepts user-provided electron precipitation spectrum and neutral profile. Some of the important outputs of the forward model include: Altitude profiles of plasma densities and temperatures, conductivities, volume emission rates and column optical intensities seen on the ground, and impact production rates of individual ion species. The model is also capable of inverse calculation, namely using multi-wavelength auroral observations to infer the incident precipitation parameters, including the total energy flux and the mean energy of the electron precipitation.
Contact: Jun Liang, Eric Donovan
Citation
We ask that users cite at least one of the following papers when using the ATM in a publication:
- Liang, J., Donovan, E., Spanswick, E., Gabrielse, C., Chaddock, D., & Houghton, J. (2026). Introduction to TREx-ATM V2.0: A Versatile Model of Auroral Transport and Its Effects in the Ionosphere. Earth and Space Science, 13(7). doi.org/10.1029/2026EA005013
- Liang, J., Donovan, E., Jackel, B., Spanswick, E., & Gillies, M. (2016). On the 630nm red-line pulsating aurora: Red-line emission geospace observatory observations and model simulations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 121, 7988–8012. doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022901
- Liang, J., Yang, B., Donovan, E., Burchill, J., & Knudsen, D. (2017). Ionospheric electron heating associated with pulsating auroras: A Swarm survey and model simulation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 122, 8781–8807. doi.org/10.1002/2017JA024127
Usage
There are three methods available for interacting with the ATM:
- Python via PyAuroraX
- IDL via IDL-AuroraX
- or directly using our RESTful HTTP API
Python examples can be found here, and IDL examples can be found here.
To interact with ATM using the API directly, below are links to the specific endpoints: