Dynamic effects of auroral currents on ionospheric conductivities, composition, and transport

Physics

Scientific paper

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[2407] Ionosphere / Auroral Ionosphere, [2409] Ionosphere / Current Systems, [2431] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions, [6929] Radio Science / Ionospheric Physics

Scientific paper

A detailed study of the effects of auroral current systems on ionospheric plasma redistribution is conducted using a new ionospheric model and related observational techniques. This research focuses on processes which structure on the ionospheric plasma and serve as candidate sources for ionospheric feedback into magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. Specifically, the interplay between plasma heating, current closure depletion, chemical depletion, and ion upflows generated in the ionosphere is modeled in a fully self-consistent way and observed indirectly via incoherent scatter radar. The model used in this study incorporates a 2D fluid system of equations describing the auroral ionospheric plasma, comprising five ion species, closed through an electrostatic treatment of the auroral currents. Simulations using this model demonstrate the relative effectiveness of plasma depletion processes in the E- and F-regions of the ionosphere under varying current system scale sizes and background ionospheric conditions. Results also highlight the importance of molecular ion generation in the F-region ionosphere and may shed some light on ionospheric source regions for outflowing molecular ions. These results are corroborated by direct observational evidence of F-region molecular ion enhancements from the Sondrestrom and AMISR radar systems. Implications of the dynamic nature of the ionosphere for magnetosphere-ionospheric coupling through Alfven waves is also discussed.

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