Magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling: Effect of neutral winds on energy transfer and field-aligned current
Journal Article
·
· Journal of Geophysical Research
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
The assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) algorithm has been applied to derive the realistic time-dependent large-scale global distributions of the ionospheric convection and particle precipitation during a recent Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) campaign period: March 28-29, 1992. The AMIE outputs are then used as the inputs of the National Center for Atmospheric Research thermosphere-ionosphere general circulation model to estimate the electrodynamic quantities in the ionosphere and thermosphere. It is found that the magnetospheric electromagnetic energy dissipated in the high-latitude ionosphere is mainly converted into Joule heating, with only a small fraction (6%) going to acceleration of thermospheric neutral winds. This study also reveals that the thermospheric winds can have significant influence on the ionospheric electrodynamics. On the average for these 2 days, the neutral winds have approximately a 28% negative effect on Joule heating and approximately a 27% negative effect on field-aligned currents. The field-aligned currents driven by the neutral wind flow in the opposite direction to those driven by the plasma convection. On the average, the global electromagnetic energy input is about 4 times larger than the particle energy input. 65 refs., 10 figs.
- OSTI ID:
- 227153
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research Journal Issue: A10 Vol. 100; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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