Dissipation of field-aligned currents in the topside ionosphere

Abstract

Field-aligned currents (FACs) are electric currents parallel to the geomagnetic field and connecting the Earth’s magnetosphere to the high-latitude ionosphere. Part of the energy injected into the ionosphere by FACs is converted into kinetic energy of the surrounding plasma. Such a current dissipation is poorly investigated, mainly due to the high electrical conductivity and the small electric field strength expected in direction parallel to the geomagnetic field. However, previous results in literature have shown that parallel electric field is not null (and may be locally not negligible), and that parallel electrical conductivity is high but finite. Thus, dissipation of FACs may occur. In this work, for the first time, we show maps of power density dissipation features associated with FACs in the topside ionosphere of the Northern hemisphere. To this aim, we use a 6-year time series of data at one second cadence acquired by the European Space Agency’s “Swarm A” satellite flying at an altitude of about 460 km. In particular, we use data from the Langmuir probe together with the FAC product provided by the Swarm team. The results obtained point out that dissipation of FACs, even if small when compared to that associated with horizontal currents flowing about 350 km lower, is not null and shows evident features co-located with electron temperature at the same altitude. In particular, power density dissipation features are enhanced mainly in the ionospheric regions where intense energy injection from the magnetosphere occurs. In addition, these features depend on geomagnetic activity, which quantifies the response of the Earth’s environment to energetic forcing from magnetized plasma of solar origin.