Operation of the Magnetometer Array on the Greenland Ice Cap (MAGIC) and Interhemispheric Investigations of Multi-Scale Current Systems

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0220735ClauerThis research is directed toward the continuation of the operation of the Magnetometer Array on the Greenland Ice Cap (MAGIC) and the continued analysis of the data from these stations together with data from other ground based and satellite instruments. The overarching objective is to explore a new approach to investigate the multi-scale solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere electrodynamic system through high temporal and spatial resolution, magnetically conjugate arrays of digital magnetometers deployed in Greenland and Eastern Antarctica. Major new elements of the proposed investigation include: (1) the upgrade of existing Greenland magnetometers to 1-second samples, (2) simultaneous visualization of interhemispheric ground geomagnetic field variations with the goal to investigate multi-scale magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, and (3) the detailed study of the transition in magnetospheric electrodynamic morphology from weakly southward IMF to weakly northward IMF conditions and vice versa. This project is a cooperative effort between the University of Michigan and the Danish Meteorological Institute. The project is a continuation of a collaboration that began with the installation of the original magnetometer stations on the Greenland ice cap in 1991. The autonomous magnetometer systems in central Greenland provided valuable intermediate variometer measurements of magnetic perturbations between the Greenland west and east coast stations. One station is located at the central Greenland summit site to provide continuity between the west and east coast stations, and one station was placed at the Air National Guard LC130 Raven skiway to provide a dense two-dimensional array for detailed current calculations. The MAGIC data in combination with data from the Greenland coastal stations and Sondrestrom incoherent scatter radar have been crucial in resolving the spatial and evolutionary characteristics of various dynamic ionospheric current systems, including traveling convection vortices, poleward propagating DPY currents, and the transition of large scale convection systems from one state to another. Using data from the Greenland stations in combination with Canadian, Scandinavian, and Antarctic magnetic data, and coordinated with other ancillary ground based and satellite data, this effort will investigate high latitude magnetic pulsations and interhemispheric auroral oval and polar cap relationships. The focus is on understanding the various electrodynamic current systems that couple energy and momentum from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and ionosphere.