AF: Inst. of Space & Atm. Studies, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Dept. of Physics & Eng. Physics, Univ. of Sask., 116 Science Place,, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2 Canada
AU: Shinohara, M
EM: m_shino@nict.go.jp
AF: NICT, 4-2-1 Nukui-Kitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8795 Japan
AB: In the northern hemisphere, the sub-auroral polarization stream (SAPS)is characterized by strong westward convection and the accompanying poleward electric field in the plasmatrough during disturbed times. The westward SAPS convection is immediately equatorward of the eastward auroral electojet flows in the midnight sector. Since the convection contours must be closed, the SAPS flow contours lead to an interesting modification to the normal two-cell "directly driven" convection pattern. That modification is mainly due to the effects of disturbance-related "unloading" convection cells. When the resulting overall convection pattern (including directly-driven and unloading effects) is examined, it is remarkably consistent with the predictions of Iijima and Potemra (1976) about the global field-aligned current (FAC) pattern. Recent results are presented to support this overall picture of the convection and FAC patterns during disturbed periods.
DE: 2409 Current systems (2708)
DE: 2463 Plasma convection
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting