Identification

Title

Observation of quiet‐time mid‐latitude joule heating and comparisons with the TIEGCM simulation

Abstract

Joule heating is a major energy sink in the solar wind‐magnetosphere‐ionosphere system and modeling it is key to understanding the impact of space weather on the neutral atmosphere. Ion drifts and neutral wind velocities are key parameters when modeling Joule heating, however there is limited validation of the modeled ion and neutral velocities at mid‐latitudes. We use the Blackstone Super Dual Auroral Radar Network radar and the Michigan North American Thermosphere Ionosphere Observing Network Fabry‐Perot interferometer to obtain the local nightside ion and neutral velocities at ∼40° geographic latitude during the nighttime of 16 July 2014. Despite being a geomagnetically quiet period, we observe significant sub‐auroral ion flows in excess of 200 ms −1 . We calculate an enhancement to the local Joule heating rate due to these ion flows and find that the neutrals impart a significant increase or decrease to the total Joule heating rate of >75% depending on their direction. We compare our observations to outputs from the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model (TIEGCM). At such a low geomagnetic activity however, TIEGCM was not able to model significant sub‐auroral ion flows and any resulting Joule heating enhancements equivalent to our observations. We found that the neutral winds were the primary contributor to the Joule heating rates modeled by TIEGCM rather than the ions as suggested by our observations.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75h7mj4

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-09-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact