Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/26790

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Title
Estimation of global field aligned currents using the Iridium® System magnetometer data
Author/Creator
Waters, C. L.;  Anderson, B. J.;  Liou, K.
Description
The Iridium® System satellite constellation consists of 66 satellites in circular, polar, 780 km altitude orbits in six equally spaced planes. Each satellite carries an engineering magnetometer which has sufficient resolution to sense the Birkeland currents. This paper presents a spherical harmonic fitting (SHF) technique for estimating field aligned currents (FACs) using the cross track component of the magnetic field measurements from the Iridium satellites. The SHF magnetic field perturbations along with Ampere’s law are used to derive the global FACs from 40° MLAT to the pole in either hemisphere. Data for 10–11 UT, 23 August, 1999 were obtained from Iridium, Defense Meteorology Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 and the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) onboard the POLAR satellite. The SHF data were evaluated along the DMSP F13 track. The range of east-west component, SHF magnetic perturbations from Iridium was (−530,465) nT compared with (−630,634) nT from DMSP F13. The derived upward FACs ranged from −0.8 to 0.9 μAm⁻². Upward FACs were co-located with bright dayside UVI emissions.
Relation
Geophysical Research Letters Vol. 28, Issue 11, p. 2165-2168
Publisher Link
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000GL012725
Date
2001
Publisher
Anerican Geophysical Union
Keyword(s)
ionosphere;  auroral ionosphere;  instruments and techniques;  magnetospheric physics;  magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions;  current systems
Resource Type
journal article
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/26790
Identifier
ISSN:0094-8276
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Subject
"Geophysical Research Letters"
 
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