GEM: Determination of the True Ionospheric Currents and Conductances from Combined Ground- and Space-Based Observations

该项目将使用一种新的电离层建模技术，球形基本电流系统（SECS），以确定真实电离层电流的时空行为。新的方法将不需要有关电离层电导的信息，并将使一个完整的电离层电动力学的直接解决方案，如果电场是已知的。将根据从铱卫星获得的磁力计数据来确定场向电流。 全球高纬度电离层电场将由超级双极光雷达网（SuperDARN）数据确定。 这些数据与地面观测电离层电流所产生的磁扰动相结合，就可以解出真正的电离层电流。 这为准瞬时全球电离层电动力学和一般地球空间环流打开了一个全新的和潜在的变革性窗口。部分磁层电流通过电离层闭合，因此，电离层电动力学对大规模地球空间电动力学、一般等离子体循环和磁层能量传输具有重要控制作用。本研究的结果可以作为地球空间大气环流模式（GGCMs）验证的一个指标。 也有可能利用关于真实电离层电流的知识来确定正在研究的事件的电离层电导。

This project will use a novel ionospheric modeling technique, the Spherical Elementary Currents System (SECS), to determine the spatiotemporal behavior of the true ionospheric currents. The new method will not require information about ionospheric conductances and will enable a direct solution for full ionospheric electrodynamics if the electric field is known. The field-aligned currents will be determined from the magnetometer data obtained from the Iridium satellites. The global, high latitude electric fields in the ionosphere will be determined from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data. These data, when combined with ground-based observations of the magnetic perturbations generated by ionospheric currents, allows one to solve for the true ionospheric currents. This opens an entirely new and potentially transformative window to the quasi-instantaneous global ionospheric electrodynamics and general geospace circulation. Parts of magnetospheric currents are closed through the ionosphere and as a result, ionospheric electrodynamics has a significant control over large-scale geospace electrodynamics, general plasma circulation and magnetospheric energy transfer. The results from this research can be used as a metric for the validation of geospace general circulation models (GGCMs). It would also be possible to use the knowledge of the true ionospheric currents to then determine the ionospheric conductances for the events being studied.