Study of zonal wind effect on the equatorial return currents using ICON/MIGHTI and Swarm Observations

Abstract

Westward currents observed at the flanks of Equatorial Electrojet are often interpreted as EEJ return currents. Using Richmond’s (1973) physical model of the electrojet, Fambitakoye et al. (1975) demonstrated that the increasingly westward neutral wind with altitude at low latitude in the E- and lower F-region are related to the strength of the currents at the flanks of EEJ, which are visible as dips. In the present study, we examine the relation of zonal wind variation with altitude in the E- and lower F region with EEJ return currents strength using wind measurements from the MIGHTI payload onboard the ICON satellite and EEJ current density obtained from Swarm satellites. Combining the two observations provides us the opportunity to shed light on effect of local wind variation on the ionospheric current generation at low latitudes. Our study shows that stronger height variation of zonal wind generates stronger EEJ return currents. A detailed examination done on the result obtained will be presented in the poster.