Ionospheric Energy Input in Response to Changes in Solar Wind Driving: Statistics From the SuperDARN and AMPERE Campaigns

Abstract

For over a decade, the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network and the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment have been measuring ionospheric convection and field-aligned currents in the high-latitude regions, respectively. Using both, high-latitude maps of the magnetosphere-ionosphere energy transfer rate (the Poynting flux) have been generated with a time resolution of 2 min between 2010 and 2017. These data driven Poynting flux (PF) patterns are used in this study to perform a superposed epoch analysis of the northern hemisphere ionospheric response to transitions of the interplanetary magnetic field Bz component, upwards of 60° geomagnetic latitude. We discuss the difference in the distribution of PF between the magnetosphere-ionosphere Dungey cycle “switching on” and “switching off” to solar wind driving, revealing that they are not symmetric temporally or spatially.