Faster traveling atmosphere disturbances caused by polar ionosphere turbulence heating

A new module, which includes both the turbulence electron heating and the electron-neutral cooling rate correction associated with the Farley-Buneman onstability (FBI) in the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics Global Circulation Model, enables us, for the first time, to investigate the intimate coupling between polar turbulence electron heating and thermosphere disturbances in the context of a first-principle, self-consistent model.

Our simulation results show that during geomagnetic storms, after taking the FBI effects into account, Joule heating is almost doubled in the E region at these locations of strong convection electric field. This increases (similar to 6%) the phase speed of traveling atmosphere disturbances at around 400 km that are launched from both hemispheres. Additional heating sources also directly produce a divergence in the zonal wind with magnitudes of 20 m/s in the lower thermosphere.