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Abstract We expand the assessment study of modeling capabilities in the prediction of foF2 and hmF2 for the ionospheric climatology (Tsagouri et al., 2018,https://doi.org/10.1029/2018sw002035) by using updated empirical (IRI and MIT Empirical model) and physics‐based models (CTIPe, WACCM‐X, and TIE‐GCM) as well as the additional observations in the southern hemisphere. Monthly medians of foF2 and hmF2 are considered to evaluate the model performance for the entire year of 2012. For quantitative evaluation, we employ several metrics including the correlation coefficient (R), coefficient of determination (R²), root‐mean square error (RMSE), mean error (ME), and mean relative error (MRE). The linear regression analysis shows that the empirical models perform much better than physics‐based models for foF2 but to a lesser degree for hmF2. There are negligible hemispheric differences in the predictions from empirical models. All the physics‐based models show relatively good correlations with the observations for foF2 in the northern hemisphere compared to the southern hemisphere, but the hemispheric differences are small for hmF2. The results of the study indicate that recent versions of empirical models tend to perform better than old versions of the models, but this is not always true for physics‐based models. 

Abstract During geomagnetically quiet and solar minimum conditions, spatial variations of the early morning thermosphere‐ionosphere (TI) system are expected to be mainly governed by wave dynamics. To study the postmidnight dynamical coupling, we investigated the early morning equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) using Global‐scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) measurements of OI‐135.6 nm nightglow emission and global navigation satellite system (GNSS)‐based total electron content (TEC) maps. The EIA structures in the OI‐135.6 nm emission over the American landmass resemble, spatially and temporally, those observed in the GNSS‐TEC maps. The early morning EIA (EM‐EIA) crests are well separated in latitude and mostly located over the middle of South America during October–November. In February–April the crests are less separated in latitude and predominantly located over the west coast sector of South America. Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere and ionosphere eXtension (WACCMX) simulations with constant solar minimum and quiet‐geomagnetic conditions show that EM‐EIA can occur globally and shows properties similar to longitudinal Wave 4 pattern. Thus, we propose that EM‐EIA is driven by dynamical changes associated with the lower atmospheric waves.