Space Physics and Aeronomy, Ionosphere Dynamics and Applications. Группа авторов

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2 High Latitude Ionospheric Convection

       Stephen E. Milan1,2, and Adrian Grocott3

       1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

       2 Birkeland Centre for Space Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

       3 Physics Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

      ABSTRACT

      We review the excitation of high‐latitude ionospheric convection by the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere and the coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. We discuss the role of magnetic reconnection in driving the Dungey cycle of convection, and the influence of frictional coupling between the ionosphere and atmosphere in modifying this convection. The electric current systems that transport stress and momentum throughout the system are described, as well as the magnetic perturbations that they produce on the ground. The system is first described as a steady‐state approximation, and then the time‐dependent expanding/contracting polar cap model of the Dungey cycle is introduced, together with its relation to the substorm cycle.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

      At high latitudes, the ionized part of the upper atmosphere undergoes a circulation known as convection, driven by the interaction between the magnetized solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. It is the purpose of this review to discuss the nature of this ionospheric convection and its causes. More detail on many aspects of the theory discussed here can be found in other recent reviews, including magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling (Cowley, 2000), magnetic reconnection and convection (Chisham et al., 2008), magnetospheric current systems (Baumjohann et al., 2010; Ganushkina et al., 2015; Milan et al., 2017), and the history of the development of the ideas behind our current understanding of the system (Cowley, 2015; Milan, 2015), including dawn‐dusk asymmetries (Grocott, 2017). At the end of this review, we will place this chapter in the context of the other chapters in this monograph.

Early observations of ionospheric convection were made with low Earth orbit satellites or radar systems with limited temporal cadence and geographical coverage, which allowed the general morphology of convection and its dependence on conditions in the solar wind and the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) to be determined by averaging observations taken over prolonged periods (e.g., Heppner, 1977; Greenwald et al., 1978; Evans et al., 1980; Wygant et al., 1983; Heelis, 1984; Willis et al., 1986; Heppner & Maynard, 1987; Rich & Hairston, 1994; Ruohoniemi & Greenwald, 1996; Weimer, 2005). Figure 2.1 presents average convection patterns from one of the most recent examples of such empirical models (Thomas & Shepherd, 2018). The convection is shown as streamlines of the flow, which as will be discussed below are also contours of electrostatic potential. In the main, the convection patterns of Figure 2.1 have a twin‐cell configuration with antisunward flow across the poles and sunward flow at lower latitudes, the strength of which depends on the north‐south component of the IMF (B_Z), with dawn‐dusk asymmetries associated with the east‐west component of the IMF (B_Y). These patterns could be understood in the context of the open model of the magnetosphere proposed by Dungey (1961), in which magnetic reconnection occurring at the magnetopause and in the magnetotail drive the Dungey cycle of circulation of magnetic field and plasma in the magnetosphere, with the rate of convection modulated by conditions in the solar wind (e.g., Reiff et al., 1981). Observations from magnetometers on the ground and in space revealed the relationship between convection and large‐scale electrical current systems flowing between the ionosphere and magnetosphere (field‐aligned currents or FACs) (e.g., Zmuda et al., 1966, 1967; Cummings & Dessler, 1967; Iijima & Potemra, 1976a, 1976b, 1978), drawing a link between magnetospheric dynamics and early predictions by Birkeland (1908). In the following years, a rather steady‐state picture of the Dungey cycle prevailed, and an incorrect physical description was developed for the transfer of momentum from the solar wind to the ionosphere by the mapping of electric field from the interplanetary medium along open field lines (e.g., Stern, 1973; Lyons, 1985; Toffoletto & Hill, 1989). However, the last 25 years have seen a major shift in our understanding of the excitation of convection. In section 2.2 of this chapter, we describe the terrestrial plasma environment and present the basic physics that governs the coupling of stress within plasmas. Then, in section 2.3, we use this to explain steady‐state convection, including the patterns presented in Figure 2.1, and current systems, within the modern framework.