Energetics of the neutral wind dynamo as observed by NASA's ICON mission

Brian Harding, Thomas J Immel, Astrid I Maute, Jeffrey Forbes, Roderick Heelis, Scott England, Stephen Mende, Christoph Englert, John Harlander, Kenneth Marr, Russell Stoneback, Jonathan Makela

Presentation information

[E] Oral

P (Space and Planetary Sciences ) » P-EM Solar-Terrestrial Sciences, Space Electromagnetism & Space Environment

[P-EM11] Coupling Processes in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere System

Fri. Jun 4, 2021 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Ch.05 (Zoom Room 05)

convener:Huixin Liu(Earth and Planetary Science Division, Kyushu University SERC, Kyushu University), Loren Chang(Institute of Space Science, National Central University), Yuichi Otsuka(Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University), Yue Deng(University of Texas at Arlington), Chairperson:Hidekatsu Jin(National Institude of Information and Communications Technology), Akinori Saito(Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)

9:15 AM - 9:30 AM

[PEM11-26] Energetics of the neutral wind dynamo as observed by NASA's ICON mission

★Invited Papers

*Brian Harding¹, Thomas J Immel¹, Astrid I Maute⁵, Jeffrey Forbes⁴, Roderick Heelis³, Scott England², Stephen Mende¹, Christoph Englert⁶, John Harlander⁷, Kenneth Marr⁶, Russell Stoneback³, Jonathan Makela⁸ (1.University of California Berkeley, 2.Virginia Tech, 3.UT Dallas, 4.University of Colorado, 5.UCAR, 6.US Naval Research Laboratory, 7.Space Sciences Research Corp, 8.University of Illinois)

Keywords:neutral wind, dynamo, ion-neutral coupling, equatorial electrodynamics

We present results from the first year of NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) mission. ICON is the first mission to simultaneously observe the electric field (in situ at ~600 km altitude) and the neutral winds that drive it (90 - 300 km altitude). Specifically, we present data from ICON's unique "conjugate maneuver." During this maneuver, which lasts several minutes, ICON measures the electric field at the apex of a magnetic field line, and the neutral wind profiles at both the northern and southern footpoints of the field line. Over 100 maneuvers were performed in 2020, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study the energetics of the neutral-wind-driven dynamo.