On the orientation of the polar cap electric field

Details On the orientation of the polar cap electric field On the orientation of the polar cap electric field

Nov 1979

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1979jgr....84.6489n&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 84, Nov. 1, 1979, p. 6489-6492.

Physics

5

Atmospheric Electricity, Auroral Zones, Birkeland Currents, Earth Ionosphere, Electric Fields, Polar Caps, Atmospheric Models, Convective Flow, Field Aligned Currents, Polarity, Space Charge

Scientific paper

In the present paper, realistic models of the ionospheric conductivity and field-aligned currents are used to show how the distribution of the electric field in the polar cap ionosphere is controlled by the day-night contrast in conductivity and by the relative strengths of the field-aligned current sheets. The sunward-directed conductivity gradient acts to set up a space charge in the polar cap which crowds the equipotentials toward the dawn sector for current sources of both quiet- and disturbed-times polarity. This effectively shifts the polar cap convection pattern toward dawn. It is further shown that for a given conductivity distribution, the orientation of the electric field in the central polar cap depends sensitively on the relative strength of Birkeland current pairs.

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