The development of new solar indices for use in thermospheric density modeling

New solar indices have been developed to improve thermospheric density modeling for research and operational purposes. Out of 11 new and 4 legacy indices and proxies, we have selected 3 (F10.7, S10.7, and M10.7) for use in the new JB2006 empirical thermospheric density model. In this work, we report on the development of these solar irradiance indices. The rationale for their use, their definitions, and their characteristics, including the IS 21348:2007 spectral category and sub-category, wavelength range, solar source temperature region, solar source feature, altitude region of terrestrial atmosphere absorption at unit optical depth, and terrestrial atmosphere thermal processes in the region of maximum energy absorption, are described. We also summarize for each solar index the facility and instrument(s) used to observe the solar emission, the time frame over which the data exist, the measurement cadence, the data latency, and the research as well as operational availability. The new solar indices are provided in forecast as well as real time and historical time frames (http://SpaceWx.com JB2006 Quicklink). We describe the forecast methodology, compare results with actual data for active and quiet solar conditions, and compare improvements in F10.7 forecasting with legacy HASDM and NOAA SWPC forecasts.