Ionosphere-Thermosphere Impact on the Magnetospheric Configuration Through Neutral Wind Dynamo: MHD-GCM Coupled Simulations

Through the ionospheric wind dynamo mechanism, neutral particles are capable of generating ionospheric current that can alter the high-latitude electric potential. However, this significant effect is not well represented in magnetosphere-ionosphere (MI) modeling. In this study, the influences of the ionospheric wind dynamo on the electrodynamic interaction between ionosphere and magnetosphere will be evaluated using the one-way coupled Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (GITM) and the geospace components of Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF). Especially, the ionospheric neutral wind driven field-aligned currents (FACs) will be included in the magnetospheric source FACs specification before transferring the high-latitude potential back to the magnetosphere. We will focus on the following three aspects: 1) to compare the distribution and magnitude of neutral wind driven FACs from GITM and the magnetospheric FACs from SWMF; 2) to assess how the neutral wind driven FACs modifies the magnetospheric configuration and the high-latitude potential; 3) furthermore, to quantify the inter-hemispheric asymmetry (IHA) caused by the feedback of ionosphere to the global magnetosphere due to the asymmetries in the neutral wind dynamo. Our study will help to accurately simulate the physical processes in the MI coupled system and provide new light for magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere studies.