The synopsis of IPIM ionosphere model (Marchaudon and Blelly, 2015) is presented in figure 1. This model is a legacy of TRANSCAR and TRANSMARS family model (Blelly et al., 1995, Diloy et al., 1996, Blelly et al., 2005) with substantial improvements, the first being that the transport equations for the ionized species are based on a 16 moment approximation (Blelly and Schunk, 1993). The model is basically a one dimensional model, which has been built in a modular way, leading to a core model that is independent from the planet. This core model corresponds to the part delimited by the red line in figure 1. In order to be able to run, it requires some inputs, which are related to the characteristics of the planet.

First of all, the planet is determined by its orbitography and a potential magnetic field that may constrain the geometry; this dependecy is represented by the two green boxes in figure 1. Without magnetic field, the grid used in the model is a vertical grid. But if a magnetic field is present, the grid used for the model is a field aligned grid, which can be an interhemispheric grid.

The other planet-dependent input is the atmosphere (blue box in figure 1) which determines the neutral species that can be considered in the model. The neutral atmosphere is accessible either through an empirical model or a specific profile, which must provide the neutral temperature and the different concentration profiles, and if possible the neutral wind. The interface allows for choosing the neutral components which will accounted for in the run. The neutral species being defined, the core model determines which collisional processes should be retained and thus, the code chooses the chemical reactions, the collision frequencies and the ionization cross sections which are necessary for the model to run (pink boxes in figure 1).

The last inputs required are related to the Sun conditions and correspond to the solar flux which provides the primary production of the ions, and the solar wind couplings with the planetary environment (yellow boxes in figure 1). The external drivers (violet box in figure 1) resulting from these couplings are specific to each planet. In the case of Earth, due to the magnetosphere, the magnetic activity, the precipitation and electrodynamics patterns will characterize these couplings. In the case of Mars, the direct inputs of electrons from the solar wind will characterize these couplings.

Once all the inputs are defined, the core model can solve for the 1D dynamics of the ionosphere, with the hypothesis that all the vectors are reduced to their projection along the direction solved: vertical if no magnetic field, and field aligned if a magnetic field is present.

This core model is based on two modules which separate the plasma between thermal and suprathermal contributions. The thermal plasma is composed of different ions chosen in the interface and the thermal electrons, and is treated through the fluid module. For every ion considered, this module solves the time-dependent transport equations (field aligned or vertical) of the density, the velocity, the temperature (parallel and perpendicular if a magnetic is present) and the heat flux (components related to the parallel and perpendicular temperature). This module accounts for the chemistry and the collisions between the ions and the neutrals.

The suprathermal electrons are obtained from the kinetic module which solves the steady state transport equation of the distribution function of this population. This module accounts for the collisions on the neutrals and excitation and ionization of these species either by electron impact or solar radiation illumination.

Fluid and kinetic modules are coupled so that, the kinetic module provides the total production rates of the ions resulting from the primary production stemmed from the photoionization and the secondary production stemmed from the suprathermal electron impact on the neutrals, as well as the thermal electron heating due the interaction between the suprathermal and thermal electrons (provided by the fluid module).