Sandpile model analogy of the magnetosphere-ionosphere substorm activity Original Research Article

Observational studies of magnetospheric activity suggest that magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling plays a critical role in the physical processes leading up to substorm onset. The sandpile cell model as an analogy of the dynamic magnetosphere-ionosphere system related with the substorm activity is presented. Dynamics of the cell model for constant input parameters and for driving by z-component of Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF Bz) is discussed. It was found that the model demonstrates some features observed in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system (Lui et al., 2000).