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High-latitude coupling processes between thermospheric circulation and solar wind driven magnetospheric currents and plasma convection

Subject Area Atmospheric Science
Term from 2010 to 2015
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 159830435
 
Final Report Year 2015

Final Report Abstract

The solar­terrestrial relations and the coupling between the magnetosphere and ionosphere/thermosphere was the subject of the present study. These interactions and dependencies have been analyzed in various ways using both ground­based measurements and satellite observations. The works focused primarily on auroral and polar latitudes, but comprised also the global frame, at least with respect to the UAM model simulation efforts, because any local source has implications for the behaviour of the whole system. The statistical studies of the high­latitude magnetospheric convection for various solar wind and IMF conditions using the electron drift observations (EDI) of the Cluster S/Cs and the similar analysis of CHAMP accelerometer measurements to deduce the cross­track thermospheric winds at high latitudes have some novelty in this field of research insofar as the tight coupling of solar wind conditions and their influence on both ionized and neutral components in the high latitude and high­altitude region could be shown. The North­South differences are a further, very intriguing subject that needs further study. We started with global numerical simulation efforts to better understand the observations and to come to more profound physical conclusions in the interpretation of the data. This work deserves continuation, because of many open questions, which have been indicated already in each of the previous sections. These questions are challenges for the further development of our global numerical modelling tools (as the UAM) and they will be posed to the data analyses of new satellite missions like the Swarm constellation that has be launched recently. These efforts will help to solve open questions of space weather prediction.

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