Motivated by recent community interest in a satellite mission to the atmospheric lower thermosphere and ionosphere (LTI) region (100–200 km altitude), the DIPCont project is concerned with the reconstruction quality of vertical profiles of key LTI variables using dual- and single-spacecraft observations. The report introduces the probabilistic DIPCont modeling framework, demonstrates its usage by means of a set of self-consistent parametric non-isothermal models, and discusses first results.

Rotational discontinuities (RDs) in plasma allow a magnetic connection between different plasma regimes. One of their defining relations describes a balance between changes in plasma mass density and pressure anisotropy. The paper uses the high-time-resolution data from the Cluster satellites to directly test that relation at the terrestrial magnetopause, when standard analysis predicts that this boundary behaves like an RD. The experimental evidence shows that the said relation is not fulfilled