Electric field effects on ionospheric and thermospheric parameters above the EISCAT station for summer conditions

• Main Authors: Klimenko, V. V., Korenkov, Yu. N., Förster, M.
• Other Authors: West Department of IZMIRAN, Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation (IZMIRAN), Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS)-Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS), German Research Centre for Geosciences - Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam (GFZ)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1998
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00316448; https://hal.science/hal-00316448/document; https://hal.science/hal-00316448/file/angeo-16-1200-1998.pdf

International audience Numerical calculations of the thermospheric and ionospheric parameters above EISCAT are presented for quiet geomagnetic conditions in summer. The Global Self-consistent Model of the Thermosphere, Ionosphere and Protonosphere (GSM TIP) was used. The numerical results were obtained both with a self-consistent calculation of the electric fields of magnetospheric and dynamo-action origin and with the magnetospheric electric fields only. It was found that the dynamo-electric field has some effect on the ionospheric convection pattern during quiet geomagnetic conditions. It has a marked effect mainly on the zonal neutral wind component above EISCAT (±20 m/s at 140 km altitude). We have studied the effects of various field-aligned current (FAC) distributions on thermosphere/ionosphere parameters and we show that a qualitative agreement can be obtained with region-I and -II FAC zones at 75 ° and 65° geomagnetic latitude, respectively. The maximum FAC intensities have been assumed at 03?21 MLT for both regions with peak values of 2.5×10 ?7 A m ?2 (region I) and 1.25×10 ?7 A m ?2 (region II). These results are in agreement with statistical potential distribution and FAC models constructed by use of EISCAT data. The lack of decreased electron density in the night-time sector as observed by the EISCAT radar was found to be due to the spatial distribution of ionospheric convection resulting from electric fields of magnetospheric origin.