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Parallel electrical conductivity in the topside ionosphere derived from Swarm measurements

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Papers from SWICo members

F. Giannattasio, P. De Michelis, A. Pignalberi, I. Coco, G. Consolini, M. Pezzopane, and R. Tozzi.

About four years of plasma data (electron density and temperature) from the ESA Swarm A satellite has been used to compute the ionospheric electrical conductivity parallel to the geomagnetic field, with the purpose of climatologically characterize a fundamental parameter involved in the formation and evolution of the field aligned currents. Variations as a function of magnetic latitude, local time and season are examined and the average effect of particle precipitation is evaluated by subtraction of the background conductivity by using the IRI model.

Polar maps of the overall 4-years distributions (2014-2018) of the parallel electrical conductivity in the ionosphere, in a magnetic quasi-dipole latitude and magnetic local time reference frame. 

The results overall agree with previous literature, but also evidence interesting unexpected features, such as, for examples, marked asymmetries in the conductivity distributions between Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Publication: F. Giannattasio, P. De Michelis, A. Pignalberi, I. Coco, G. Consolini, M. Pezzopane, and R. Tozzi, Parallel electrical conductivity in the topside ionosphere derived from Swarm measurements, J. Geophys. Res.: Space Physics, 126(2), e2020JA028452, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028452.