How much does the Ionosphere control the magnetosphere during substorms and SMCs?

Previous research has shown that isolated substorms and steady magnetospheric events (SMCs) can occur during similar solarwind and IMF conditions, and what determines the mode of transport in the magnetosphere is preconditioning of the ionosphere. DeJong et al. (2018) stated that stronger conductances during the SMCs allow the magnetosphere to remain steady, however they only investigated two events, one each of an SMC and an isolated substorm. We plan to continue this research by investigating the conductances of several more isolated substorms and SMCs of varying strength and driving. We will also quantify Joule Heating rates and the ionospheric dynamics using the Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (GITM) with average energy and energy flux inputs calculated from the Polar UVI imager data.