High-latitude dayside electric fields and currents during strong northward interplanetary magnetic field - Observations and model simulation

• Main Authors: Clauer, C. Robert, Friis-Christensen, Eigil
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1988
• Subjects: 46; Greenland; Sondre Stromfjord
• Online Access: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19880044597

On July 23, 1983 the IMF turned strongly northward, becoming about 22 nT for several hours. Using a combined data set of ionospheric convection measurements made by the Sondre Stromfjord incoherent scatter radar and convection inferred from Greenland magnetometer measurements, the onset of the reconfiguration of the high-latitude ionospheric currents is found to occur about 3 min after the northward IMF encounters the magnetopause. The large-scale reconfiguration of currents, however, appears to evolve over a period of about 22 min. These observations and the results of numerical simulations indicate that the dayside polar-cap electric field observed during strong northward IMF is produced by a direct electrical current coupling with the solar wind.