The Real-Time Determination of Ionospheric Current Parameters during a Substorm

抄録

Data from three-axis magnetometers situated at two different locations on a north-south line from Churchill were fed into a PDP-8 computer at Churchill. The altitude, horizontal position and intensity of the polar electrojet were determined in real time to select the optimum launch time for rockets used to study auroral phenomena associated with substorms. During the two substorms studied, the jet was located near 140km altitude and the intensity of each was as high as 0.5 megaamps. In one case, both stations gave results similar to the two station fit, so the jet was well approximated by a line current. In the second case, the data suggest that the current was either a sheet current or a group of filaments.