Low and middle latitude westward thermospheric wind jets during geomagnetic storms

Previous studies have shown that at low and middle latitudes zonal thermospheric winds can be significantly enhanced between ~150 km and 200km, forming westward jets during and after major geomagnetic storms. In this presentation we study these jets using the Coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere (CMIT) model. We found that: 1) there are significant enhancements of westward neutral wind at low and middle latitudes during and after the storm around 180 km in the model simulations; 2) a diagnostic analysis of the model outputs indicates that momentum advection from the high latitudes to the low and middle latitudes are the cause of these neutral wind jets; and 3) the specific altitude range in which the jets occur is related to the height distribution of the ion drag coefficients at high latitudes.