On thermospheric winds produced by auroral heating during magnetic storms and associated dynamo electric fields

This paper presents a comparison between a model of magnetic-storm disturbances in midlatitude thermospheric winds and electric fields, and observations of these effects at the Saint-Santin incoherent scatter radar during two selected geomagnetic storms. The model predicts the correct sense of the disturbances, roughly the correct magnitude, and roughly the correct timing. This lends some confidence to the method used to parameterize global auroral heating in terms of the AE index. Discrepancies between the model and observations are likely caused by the assumed longitudinal symmetry of the model, by natural day-to-day variability of thermospheric winds not related to storm effects, and by possible limitations of the heating parameterization.