Impacts of Neutral Wind-induced Currents on Geomagnetic Disturbances and Magnetospheric Dynamics During the May 2024 Gannon Storm

The thermosphere is capable of generating ionospheric currents through the neutral wind dynamo influencing high-latitude electrodynamics, especially during intense geomagnetic storms. However, this significant effect is not well represented in magnetosphere-ionosphere (M-I) modeling. In this study, the influence of the neutral wind-induced ionospheric currents on the electrodynamic interaction between the ionosphere and the magnetosphere is evaluated for the May 2024 Gannon storm, using the coupled geospace components of the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) and the Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (GITM). Specifically, the neutral wind-driven field-aligned currents (FACs) are combined with the magnetospheric-origin FACs before feeding the high-latitude potential back to the magnetosphere. Three key aspects are addressed. There are: 1) investigating the distribution and magnitude of neutral wind-induced FACs across different storm phases, latitudes and local times; 2) assessing the impact of the neutral wind-induced currents on high-latitude potential and magnetospheric dynamics; and 3) evaluating the relative significance of neutral wind-induced currents and magnetospheric-origin currents in contributing to geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs) at different latitudes. By improving the consistency of M-I coupling simulations, this study will strongly advance our understanding of the fundamental processes in the geospace environment.