Effects of enhanced electric fields [ionosphere]

Ground based and satellite studies have indicated that, far from forming a steady state convection pattern, the electric field at high latitudes shows bursts of activity, particularly on the night-side, the bursts repeating over time scales of less than an hour. Such dynamic fluctuations are thought to occur during intervals when the amount of energy input to the magnetosphere from the solar wind is large and there is evidence of an association with a southward turning of the IMF and magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail. The global coupled ionosphere/thermosphere model, developed in collaboration between Sheffield University and UCL, has been used to investigate the effects, both local and global, of such dynamic fluctuations in the high-latitude convection electric field