A cross‐field current instability for substorm expansions

We investigate a cross‐field current instability (CFCI) as a candidate for current disruption during substorm expansions. The numerical solution of the linear dispersion equation indicates that (1) the proposed instability can occur at the inner edge or the midsection of the neutral sheet just prior to the substorm expansion onset although the former environment is found more favorable at the same drift speed scaled to the ion thermal speed, (2) the computed growth time is comparable to the substorm onset time, and (3) the excited waves have a mixed polarization with frequencies near the ion gyrofrequency at the inner edge and near the lower hybrid frequency in the midtail region. On the basis of this analysis we propose a substorm development scenario in which plasma sheet thinning during the substorm growth phase leads to an enhancement in the relative drift between ions and electrons. This results in the neutral sheet being susceptible to the CFCI and initiates the diversion of the cross‐tail current through the ionosphere. Whether or not a substorm current wedge is ultimately formed is regulated by the ionospheric condition. A large number of substorm features can be readily understood with the proposed scheme. These include (1) precursory activities (pseudobreakups) prior to substorm onset, (2) substorm initiation region to be spatially localized, (3) three different solar wind conditions for substorm occurrence, (4) skew towards evening local times for substorm onset locations, (5) different acceleration characteristics between ions and electrons, (6) tailward spreading of current disruption region after substorm onset, and (7) local time expansion of substorm current wedge with possible discrete westward jump for the evening expansion.