TOWARDS A SELF-CONSISTENT MODEL FOR THE CONVECTIVE AURORAL ELECTROJET

It is shown that the intensification of electric field dominated auror al electrojets in the morning and evening sectors of the amoral oval o n be understood in a self-consistent fluid model as the ionospheric re sponse to enhanced magnetospheric plasma convection. Starting from a s elf-consistently calculated equilibrium characterized by current-closu re in the partially ionized ionosphere we perform fluid simulations to study the dynamics of the ionospheric current system in response to e nhanced magnetospheric convection.