The Four-Part Field-Aligned Current System in the Ionosphere at Substorm Onset

Abstract:

Whereas the plasma circulation in the ionosphere is driven by convective drift which is the same for ions and electrons, the magnetospheric plasma circulation includes curvature and gradient drifts, which are charge-dependent. There is even a region of the Neutral Sheet in which the ions, but not the electrons, are “unmagnetized” and where charge separation can occur even for convective drift, which the electrons execute but the ions do not. Due to the charge separations in the magnetosphere, field-aligned currents are generated. The FACs and the associated electric fields play an important role in producing the convection pattern in the ionosphere. Here we argue that there are two pairs of FACs near substorm onset. One pair involves the auroral zone portion of the convection. There, a downward D FAC occurs in the poleward part of the auroral zone and an upward U FAC occurs in the equatorward part. We show that the D-U auroral FAC pair results from the odd situation in the INSh, where the electrons can convect earthward while the unmagnetized ions do not and so remain further tailward of the electrons. The equatorward edge of the auroral zone is marked by a convection reversal, because the auroral zone flows have an eastward velocity component, whereas subauroral flows have a westward component. At the convection reversal, the flow is strictly southward and the electric field strictly westward. The subauroral zone maps out to the outer radiation belt, where the high-energy electrons precipitate tailward of the energetic electron trapping boundary,and high-energy ions precipitate tailward of the energetic ion trapping boundary, the latter being earthward of the former. As a result, another FAC pair forms on field lines in the ORB/subauroral regions. The U FAC of the latter region is adjacent but earthward of the U FAC of the auroral zone pair. The D-U auroral zone pair is poleward of the U-D subauroral (Radiation Belt) pair. Finally, we note that the electric field lines in the convection pattern have a strong vorticity near the convection reversal. By Faraday’s Law of Induction there is a decrease in magnetic flux density on the poleward side of the convection reversal, and an increase on the equatorward side. We address this issue for two different time intervals, namely the late growth phase and then the substorm onset.