HR: 14:25h
AN: SA13B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: High-Latitude Joule Heating Compared With Observed Global Neutral Density Response
AU: * Weimer, D R
EM: dan.weimer@atk.com
AF: ATK Mission Research, 589 West Hollis Street, Suite 201, Nashua, NH 03062-1323 United States
AU: Wilson, G R
EM: gordon.wilson@atk.com
AF: ATK Mission Research, 589 West Hollis Street, Suite 201, Nashua, NH 03062-1323 United States
AU: Petro, D L
EM: daniel.petro@hanscom.af.mil
AF: Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate 29 Randolph Road Bldg. 1102F, Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-3010 United States
AB: An empirical model of the high-latitude, ionospheric electric potentials has recently undergone substantial revision and improvement. This model, which can predict the electric fields in the ionosphere using only measurements of the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), has a "twin" model that is based on "magnetic Euler potentials." Although the original purpose of the magnetic potentials was to map the distribution of the field-aligned currents into the ionosphere, it can be combined with the electric field predictions in order to calculate the distribution of Joule heating in the ionosphere. Thus, we can calculate the total Joule heat energy input to the ionosphere as a function of time. This energy, which is transferred from the solar wind through the magnetosphere and ionosphere into the thermosphere, increases substantially during geomagnetic storms. Comparing our results with output from the High Accuracy Satellite Drag Model (HASDM), we show that during major storms the Joule heating is a major source of day-long enhancements in the global thermospheric neutral density.
DE: 2447 Modeling and forecasting
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
DE: 0358 Thermosphere--energy deposition
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting