| Session Details | |
| Section | ST - Solar & Terrestrial Sciences |
| Session Title | Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Dynamics |
| Main Convener | Dr. Z. H. Yao (University College London, United Kingdom) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Jiang Liu (University of California, Los Angeles, United States) Dr. Kyle Murphy (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, United States) Prof. Zuyin Pu (Peking University, China) |
| Session Description | The coupling between Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere is essential to the transfer of energy and particle acceleration in the Solar-Terrestrial system. These coupling dynamics are usually accompanied by intense field-aligned currents generation and particle acceleration. These field-aligned currents and resulting particle acceleration exist at nearly all spatial and temporal scales, from the global substorm current wedge and westward travelling surge observed during the substorm expansion phase to the ion-gyro-radius scale and pulsating aurora observed during the sub storm growth phase, and have been identified by magnetic perturbations observed by ground magnetometers, low-altitude spacecraft and magnetospheric observations. The physical processes, either in the magnetosphere or ionosphere, leading to the formation of these field-aligned currents, and how particles are accelerated in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling remains poorly understood. This session invites contributions that discuss space and ground-based observations, modeling and simulations of high and auroral latitude ionosphere current systems, how these current systems couple to the magnetosphere, and the role of these current systems in particle precipitation and acceleration, leading to particle acceleration. |