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Timescales of Birkeland Currents Driven by the IMF

Coxon, JC; Shore, RM; Freeman, MP; Fear, RC; Browett, SD; Smith, AW; Whiter, DK; (2019) Timescales of Birkeland Currents Driven by the IMF. Geophysical Research Letters , 46 (14) pp. 7893-7901. 10.1029/2018GL081658. Green open access

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Abstract

We obtain current densities from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE), alongside By and Bz from the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) for March 2010. For each AMPERE spatial coordinate, we cross-correlate current density with By and Bz, finding the maximum correlation for lags up to 360 min. The patterns of maximum correlation contain large-scale structures consistent with the literature. For the correlation with By, the lags on the dayside are 10 min at high latitudes but up to 240 min at lower latitudes. Lags on the nightside are 90–150 min. For Bz, the shortest lags on the dayside are 10–20 min; on the equatorward edge of the current oval, 60–90 min; and on the nightside, predominantly 90–150 min. This novel approach enables us to see statistically the timescales on which information is electrodynamically communicated to the ionosphere after magnetic field lines reconnect on the dayside and nightside.

Type: Article
Title: Timescales of Birkeland Currents Driven by the IMF
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2018GL081658
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081658
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: Birkeland currents, field‐aligned currents, timescales, magnetopause, magnetotail, substorms
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10080227
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