Coherent Radar Estimates of Average High-latitude Ionospheric Joule Heating.

Kosch, Mike J. and Nielsen, E. (1995) Coherent Radar Estimates of Average High-latitude Ionospheric Joule Heating. Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics, 100 (A7). pp. 12201-12215. ISSN 0148-0227

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Abstract

The Scandinavian Twin Auroral Radar Experiment (STARE) and Sweden and Britain Radar Experiment (SABRE) bistatic coherent radar systems have been employed to estimate the spatial and temporal variation of the ionospheric Joule heating in the combined geographic latitude range 63.8°-72.6° (corrected geomagnetic latitude 61.5°-69.3°) over Scandinavia. The 173 days of good observations with all four radars have been analyzed during the period 1982 to 1986 to estimate the average ionospheric electric field versus time and latitude. The AE dependent empirical model of ionospheric Pedersen conductivity by Spiro et al. (1982) has been used to calculate the Joule heating. The latitudinal and diurnal variation of Joule heating as well as the estimated mean hemispherical heating of 1.7 × 1011 W are in good agreement with earlier results. Average Joule heating was found to vary linearly with the AE, AU, and AL indices and as a second-order power law with Kp. The average Joule heating was also examined as a function of the direction and magnitude of the interplanetary magnetic field. It has been shown for the first time that the ionospheric electric field magnitude as well as the Joule heating increase with increasingly negative (southward) Bz .

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