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Subauroral electric fields and magnetospheric convection during the April, 2002 geomagnetic storms
Author(s) -
Anderson P. C.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2004gl019588
Subject(s) - plasmasphere , geomagnetic storm , ring current , ionosphere , magnetosphere , storm , geophysics , electric field , earth's magnetic field , atmospheric sciences , polar cap , convection , polar , meteorology , physics , geology , magnetic field , astronomy , quantum mechanics
We analyze the ionospheric electric fields during the geomagnetic storms of April, 2002 using data from the DMSP satellites. The subauroral potential drop (Φ SA ) in the evening sector exceeded 60 kV at times and was often a substantial fraction of total cross‐polar‐cap potential drop (Φ PC ). At storm commencement, the subauroral electric field penetration moved rapidly equatorward reaching the lowest magnetic latitude well before the end of the storms' main phases. Φ PC and Φ SA were correlated well with AE with no time delay. However, the correlations of Φ PC and Φ SA with Dst occurred with significant time delays, about an hour for Φ PC and longer for Φ SA . The largest values of Φ PC were seen near the end of the storm main phases while the largest values of Φ SA were seen well into the recovery phases. The results of this study have important implications on models attempting to describe the dynamics of the plasmasphere, the inner magnetosphere and the ring current.