In this project we will investigate how the flux and energy of magnetospheric particles precipitating into the ionosphere, electric conductivity and currents in the ionosphere vary as a function of solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) parameters. This project has three objectives. (1) We will construct a novel empirical model for particle precipitation and electric conductivity. We will take into account the effect of IMF By component in particle precipitation which is missing in the current models. (2) We will study the physical mechanism of the above IMF By effect which is still unknown. For this purpose we will utilize satellite images or aurora as well as numerical computer models. (3) We will investigate the small-scale structure of ionospheric currents with the new EISCAT 3D radar. We will focus especially on the structure of current during substorms which have never been measured in high resolution.

2024

2028