Relative role of the azimuthal Pedersen current component in the substorm global electric circuit
Abstract
In the early, well-known model of the substorm current wedge (SCW) circuit, the azimuthal Pedersen current in the ionosphere closes a pair of the down- and up-ward field-aligned currents connecting the magnetosphere's generator with the ionosphere. In an alternative SCW model, the Pedersen currents flow through the ionosphere in the meridional direction. In this paper, we describe the dynamics of electric currents during the expansion phase of two selected, winter and summer substorms to compare the relative role of the meridional and azimuthal Pedersen currents at the expansion phase peak.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
- Pub Date:
- November 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.jastp.2018.09.014
- Bibcode:
- 2018JASTP.179..562K
- Keywords:
-
- Substorm expansion phase;
- Meridional and azimuthal Pedersen currents