Thermospheric impact on the magnetosphere through ionospheric outflow

We isolated the thermosphere's material influence and suppressed electrodynamic feedback in whole geospace simulations by imposing a time-constant ionospheric conductance in the ionospheric Ohm's law in a coupled model that combines the multifluid Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry magnetosphere model with the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model and the Ionosphere Polar Wind Model that includes both polar wind and transversely accelerated ion species.

Numerical experiments were conducted for different thermospheric states parameterized by F10.7 for interplanetary driving representative of the stream interaction region that swept past Earth on March 27, 2003. We demonstrate that thermosphere through its regulation of ionospheric outflows influences magnetosphere-ionosphere (MI) convection and the ion composition, symmetries, x-line perimeter and magnetic merging of the magnetosphere.