“…The configuration and strength of the geomagnetic field is a major controlling factor for energetic charged particle dynamics in the magnetosphere, including the dynamics of radiation belt electrons (e.g., Roederer & Zhang, ), ring current ions (e.g., Zaharia et al, ), cosmic rays, and solar energetic particle events (e.g., Desorgher et al, , Kress et al, ). For studies requiring magnetic conjugacy between satellites (e.g., Friedel et al, ; Morley et al, ) or between satellites and ground‐based instrumentation (e.g., Hones et al, ; Ge et al, ), the global morphology and mapping of magnetic field lines is crucial (e.g., Pulkkinen & Tsyganenko, ). Data‐based modeling of the external geomagnetic field has a long history of development in space physics (see Tsyganenko, , and references therein).…”