HR: 16:15h
AN: SM52F-02    [PDF]
TI: Semi-Global SuperDARN--Magnetometer Determinations of the Ionospheric Hall Conductance
AU: * Shepherd, S G
EM: simon.shepherd@dartmouth.edu
AF: Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, 8000 Cummings Hall, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AU: Murr, D L
EM: david.murr@dartmouth.edu
AF: Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, 8000 Cummings Hall, Hanover, NH 03755 United States
AB: The conductivity of the ionosphere plays a vitally important role in the electrodynamic coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The primary mode of coupling between these two regions is through field-aligned currents, which depend on spatial gradients in the conductivity. Despite its importance, values of ionospheric conductivity are not readily available, due mostly to the difficulty in measuring it, particularly over widespread regions. No technique exists to directly measure the conductivity over large regions of the high-latitude ionosphere. Using combined SuperDARN measurements of the ionospheric electric field and magnetometer measurements of the ground magnetic perturbation, it is possible to infer the height-integrated Hall conductivity (Hall conductance) in the localized region of the measurements. By using the extended nature of the SuperDARN and magnetometer networks it is possible to make localized inferences of the Hall conductance over a widespread region. Several periods with collocated measurements extending over many hours of local time are analyzed to determine the Hall conductance for varying geomagnetic conditions. The results are compared to other techniques and models commonly used to infer this quantity.
DE: 2409 Current systems (2708)
DE: 2411 Electric fields (2712)
DE: 2494 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting