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，即球形基本电流系统（SECS），来确定真实电离层电流的时空行为。新方法不需要电离层电导的信息，如果电场已知，就可以直接解决电离层电动力学问题。磁场对准电流将根据从铱星获得的磁力计数据确定。全球的高纬度电离层电场将由超级双极光雷达网络（SuperDARN）的数据确定。当这些数据与电离层电流产生的磁扰动的地面观测相结合时，就可以求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、潜在的变革窗口。部分磁层电流通过电离层闭合，因此电离层电动力学对大尺度地球空间电动力学、一般等离子体循环和磁层能量传递具有重要的控制作用。研究结果可作为验证地球空间大气环流模型（GGCMs）的指标。也有可能利用电离层真实电流的知识来确定所研究事件的电离层电导。

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.