Pedersen Conductance as Measured by Swarm
Date
2023-07
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Abstract
We estimate ionospheric Pedersen conductance using measurements from the European Space Agency’s Swarm A satellites of magnetic and electric fields. We provide long-term averages in the form of global maps, and case-by-case results using scatter plots of Pedersen conductance versus solar zenith angle. The long-term results display expected ionospheric features and show agreement with previous studies. However, we find that the case-by-case results display a high variability, and abnormally low Pedersen conductance values. We identify possible sources of the high variability and low magnitude, and we revisit the underlying assumptions conventionally used in such calculations. We find that variation of ionospheric parameters in the zonal direction, and contamination of zonal magnetic field by Hall currents are potentially significantly affecting our conductance estimates. Further, we identify non-quasi-static fields and presence of Alfvén waves as another significant source potentially affecting the results.
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Keywords
Pedersen Conductance, Swarm
Citation
Pourkarim, P. (2023). Pedersen conductance as measured by Swarm (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.