Post-Storm Middle and Low-Latitude Ionospheric Electric Fields Effects

Abstract

The Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere undergoes large and complex perturbations during and after geomagnetic storms. Thermospheric winds driven by enhanced energy and momentum due to geomagnetic activity generate large disturbance electric fields, plasma drifts and currents with a broad range of temporal and spatial scales from high to equatorial latitudes. This disturbance dynamo mechanism plays a fundamental role on the response of the middle and low-latitude ionosphere to geomagnetic activity. In this review, we initially describe the early evidence for the importance of this process and the first simulation study which already was able to explain its main effects on the electrodynamics of the middle and low-latitude ionosphere. We then describe the results of more recent simulations and the extensive experimental work that highlights the importance of this mechanism for ionospheric space weather studies extending to post-storms periods, and present some suggestions for future studies.