Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics: The winds in the ionosphere push the plasma in the presence of Earth's magnetic field, causing ions and electrons to move in different directions, producing electric current. The low-latitude ionospheric current system consists of an intense eastward current at the magnetic equator and off-equatorial reduced eastward or relative westward currents, which are called dip currents, in both hemispheres. Modelling studies have shown that the altitudinal gradient of the zonal wind is related to the strength of the dip currents. However, observational studies to validate these results have been missing to this date. This study utilizes simultaneous observations from ICON and Swarm satellites to provide insights on the connection between low-latitude winds and currents, which will improve our understanding of the causes of daytime ionospheric variability.
Quasi dipole latitudinal variations of the average Swarm and ICON conjunctions: EEJ from Swarm A (left), zonal wind from ICON/MIGHTI (middle), and the corresponding EEJ from the model (rihgt) showing that with westward turning winds in Pedersen conductivity dominated region (middle) the off-equatorial current dips are strong (left).