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Field-aligned current distribution and response to interplanetary conditions during a superstorm—CHAMP observation

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

With geomagnetic measurements on board of CHAMP satellite, the characteristics of global large-scale field-aligned currents (FACs) in the topside ionosphere are investigated along with their responses to interplanetary conditions for the superstorm of November, 2003. It is found that (1) The storm-time FAC densities enhanced greatly in comparison with quiet period and the enhancements show hemispheric asymmetry of both summer-winter and sunlit-dark. (2) For the first time, it is revealed that the latitude-integrated FAC density is controlled mainly by solar wind dynamic pressure rather than IMF. (3) FACs expanded equatorward dramatically, with the lowest latitude being 45° ML at or more; on the day-side this expansion was controlled directly by IMF B z , showing an interaction time scale of about 25 min in the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling system, and a nonlinear saturation of the equatorward expansion when IMF B z < −30 nT; while on the nightside, the expansion and recovery lagged about 3 h behind the IMF changes but nearly in phase with changes of SYM-H index. (4) During the storm main phase, the nightside FAC latitude coverage extended to 25° or wider, appearing multi-sheet current structure with more than 10 sheets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ionosphere and Magnetosphere, LOGEG, CNME, College of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Wang Hui, Ma ShuYing, Zhou YunLiang & Dang Ge

  2. GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam, 14473, Germany

    Wang Hui & Hermann Luehr

Authors
  1. Wang Hui
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  2. Ma ShuYing
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  3. Hermann Luehr
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  4. Zhou YunLiang
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  5. Dang Ge
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Correspondence to Ma ShuYing.

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Supported by DAAD Sandwich Scholarship and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40390150)

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Wang, H., Ma, S., Hermann, L. et al. Field-aligned current distribution and response to interplanetary conditions during a superstorm—CHAMP observation. CHINESE SCI BULL 52, 248–258 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0003-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0003-9

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