Storm effects on global electrodynamics and middle and low latitude ionosphere

Team Chair: Tim Fuller-Rowell
Next Team Meeting: September 14, 2007 at NCAR in Boulder, CO
Team-Maintained Web Site:
Team Publications:
Team Members:

Target description: Magnetic storms cause large departures of electric field from their quiet values and large changes in the mid and low latitude ionosphere. The electric field perturbations cover a broad range of spatial and temporal scales and strongly affect plasmaspheric erosion and reconfiguration, ionospheric
dynamics and plasma distribution, and the occurrence of ionospheric plasma instabilities which can severely disrupt communication and navigation systems over a large area of the Earth. Significant progress has been achieved in our understanding of mid and low latitude storm-time electrodynamics and their effects on the ionosphere by the use of TEC and global imaging, but there are fundamentally important unresolved questions dealing with their large spatial and temporal variability. A global understanding of this variability and of the processes involved is essential for realistic storm time ionospheric forecasting,
which is increasingly important for a number of space based systems.

Goals and measures of success: The goal of this targeted research is to produce improved understanding and forecasting capabilities of storm electrodynamics from subauroral to equatorial latitudes and their effects on the ionosphere in response to different solar wind and magnetospheric conditions. The forecasting of these storm effects from numerical models will be validated against global electric field and ionospheric measurements, taking into account variations with longitude, season, and solar flux.

Types of solicited investigations: Proposals that address this topic are encouraged to consider storm electrodynamics from a global ionosphericmagnetospheric perspective. The research objectives of proposals will include modeling and empirical investigations that deal with (1) techniques to improve the specification and forecasting of magnetospheric parameters that play fundamental roles in middle and low latitude storm electrodynamics; (2) techniques that substantially enhance the database of global mid and low latitude electric field measurements; (3) the generation of mid-latitude polarization electric fields, their temporal and global spatial dependence, and their relationship to lower latitude storm electrodynamics; and (4) the storm time dependence and global distribution of prompt penetration electric fields from subauroral to equatorial latitudes under different solar, ionospheric, and magnetospheric conditions and their effects on the ionosphere.