Modeling the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere during strong geomagnetic storms

This work builds on and extends our previous effort (Tsyganenko et al., 2003) to develop a dynamical model of the storm‐time geomagnetic field in the inner magnetosphere, using space magnetometer data taken during 37 major events in 1996–2000 and concurrent observations of the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The essence of the approach is to derive from the data the temporal variation of all major current systems contributing to the distant geomagnetic field during the entire storm cycle, using a simple model of their growth and decay. Each principal source of the external magnetic field (magnetopause, cross‐tail current sheet, axisymmetric and partial ring currents, and Birkeland current…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• DO
  Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India