Ionosphere/thermosphere heating determined from dynamic magnetosphere-ionosphere/thermosphere coupling

Abstract

Ionosphere/thermosphere heating driven by magnetospheric convection is investigated through a three-fluid inductive (including Faraday's law) approach to describing magnetosphere-ionosphere/thermosphere coupling, for a 1-D stratified ionosphere/thermosphere in this initial study. It is shown that the response of the ionosphere/thermosphere and thus the heating is dynamic and height-dependent. The heating is essentially frictional in nature rather than Joule heating as commonly assumed. The heating rate reaches a quasi-steady state after about 25 Alfvén travel times. During the dynamic period, the heating can be enhanced and displays peaks at multiple times due to wave reflections. The dynamic heating rate can be more than twice greater than the quasi-steady state value. The heating is strongest in the E-layer but the heating rate per unit mass is concentrated around the F-layer peak height. This implies a potential mechanism of driving O+ upflow from O+ rich F-layer. It is shown that the ionosphere/thermosphere heating caused by the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling can be simply evaluated through the relative velocity between the plasma and neutrals without invoking field-aligned currents, ionospheric conductance, and electric field. The present study provides understanding of the dynamic magnetosphere-ionosphere/thermosphere coupling from the ionospheric/thermospheric view in addition to magnetospheric perspectives. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.