Numerical modeling of solar wind influences on the dynamics of the high-latitude upper atmosphere

Abstract

Neutral thermospheric wind patterns at high latitudes obtained from cross-track acceleration measurements of the CHAMP satellite above both polar regions are used to deduce statistical neutral wind vorticity distributions and were analyzed in their dependence on the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). The average pattern confirms the large duskside anticyclonic vortex seen in the average wind pattern and reveals a positive (cyclonic) vorticity on the dawnside, which is almost equal in magnitude to the duskside negative one. The IMF dependence of the vorticity pattern resembles the characteristic field-aligned current (FAC) and ionospheric plasma drift pattern known from various statistical studies obtained under the same sorting conditions as, e.g., the EDI Cluster statistical drift pattern. There is evidence for hemispheric differences in the average magnitudes of the statistical patterns both for plasma drift and even more for the neutral wind vorticity. The paper aims at a better understanding of the globally interconnected complex plasma physical and electrodynamic processes of Earth's upper atmosphere by means of first-principle numerical modeling using the Upper Atmosphere Model (UAM). The simulations of, e.g., thermospheric neutral wind and mass density at high latitudes are compared with CHAMP observations for varying IMF conditions. They show an immediate response of the upper atmosphere and its high sensitivity to IMF changes in strength and orientation.