Skip to main content
Earth, Planets and Space
Download PDF

Volume 58 Supplement 4

Special Issue: Swarm—The Earth’s Magnetic Field and Environment Explorers

Curl-B technique applied to Swarm constellation for determining field-aligned currents

Earth, Planets and Space volume 58, pages 463–476 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The constellation of the Swarm satellites provides for the first time the opportunity to determine field-aligned currents in the ionosphere uniquely. This is achieved by employing the curl-B relation of Ampere’s law directly to measurements of a satellite pair flying side-by-side. The new technique is applied to a set of consistent magnetic field and current data generated by a global magnetospheric model. Using a realistic Swarm constellation the current distribution is determined along the orbit from the synthetic magnetic field data. The resulting currents are tested against the input currents. The agreement between input model and recovered field-aligned currents is excellent and much improved compared to the single-satellite estimates. Due to the spatial separation of the sampling points, only the distribution of large-scale field-aligned currents can be determined. These investigations demonstrate one important aspect of the broad capabilities provided by the upcoming space mission.

References

  • Anderson, B. J., K. Takahashi, and B. A. Toth, Sensing global Birkeland currents with Iridium engineering magnetometer data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 4045, 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friis-Christensen, E., H. Lühr, and G. Hulot, Swarm: A constellation to study the Earth’s magnetic field, Earth Planets Space, 58, this issue, 351–358, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung, S. F. and R. A. Hoffman, Finite geometry effects of field-aligned currents, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 8569–8579, 1992.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holme, R., N. Olsen, M. Rother, and H. Lühr, CO2-a CHAMP magnetic field model, in “First CHAMP Mission Results for Gravity, Magnetic and Atmospheric Studies”, edited by C. Reigber, H. Lühr, and P. Schwintzer, pp. 220–225, Springer, Berlin, 2003.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Iijima, T. and T. Potemra, The amplitude distribution of field-aligned currents at northern high latitudes observed by TRIAD, J. Geophys. Res., 81, 2165–2174, 1976.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lühr, H., J. J. Warnecke, and M. Rother, An algorithm for estimating field-aligned currents from single spacecraft magnetic field measurements: a diagnostic tool applied to Freja satellite data, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 34, 1369–1376, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, D., IERS Conventions (1996), IERS Technical Note 21, Observatoire de Paris, July, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moretto, T., S. Vennerstrøm, N. Olsen, L. Rastätter, and J. Raeder, Using global magnetospheric models for simulation and interpretation of Swarm external field measurements, Earth Planets Space, 58, this issue, 439–449, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, N., Ionospheric F region currents at middle and low latitudes estimated from MAGSAT data, J. Geophys. Res., 102(A3), 4563–4576, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, N., et al., Swarm End-to-End Mission Performance Simulator Study, February 2004, ESA Contract No. 17263/03/NL/CB, DSRI Report 1/2004, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reigber, C., H. Lühr, and P. Schwintzer, CHAMP mission status, Adv. Space Res., 30(2), 129–134, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sonnerup, B. U. O. and L. J. Cahill, Magnetopause structure and attitude from explorer 12 observations, J. Geophys. Res., 72, 171–183, 1967.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stauning, P., Field-aligned ionospheric current systems observed from the Magsat and Ørsted satellites during northward IMF, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 10.1029/2001GL013,961, 2002.

  • Stauning, P., F. Primdahl, J. Watermann, and O. Rasmussen, IMF By-related cusp currents observed from the Ørsted satellite and from ground, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 99–102, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stauning, P., F Christiansen, and J. Watermann, On the modelling of field-aligned currents from magnetic observations by polar orbiting satellites, in Earth Observation with CHAMP, edited by C. Reigber, H. Lühr, P. Schwintzer, and J. Wickert, p. 371, Springer, Berlin, 2005.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Vennerstrøm, S., T. Moretto, N. Olsen, E. Friis-Christensen, A. Stampe, and J. Watermann, Field-aligned currents in the dayside cusp and polar cap region during northward IMF, J. Geophys. Res., 107(A8), 10.1029/2001JA009,162, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vennerstrøm, S., E. Friis-Christensen, H. Lühr, T. Moretto, N. Olsen, C. Manoj, P. Ritter, L. Rastätter, A. Kuvshinov, and S. Maus, The impact of combined magnetc and electric field analysis and of ocean circulation effects on Swarm Mission performance, ESA Contract No. 3-10901/03/NL/CB, DSRI Report 2/2004, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vennerstrom, S., T. Moretto, L. Rastätter, and J. Raeder, Modeling and analysis of solar wind generated contributions to the near-Earth magnetic field, Earth Planets Space, 57, this issue, 451–461, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waters, C. L., B. J. Anderson, and K. Liou, Estimation of global field-aligned currents using the Iridium System magnetometer data, Geophys. Res. Lett, 28(11), 2165–2168, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamashita, S. and T. Iyemori, Seasonal and local-time dependences of the inter-hemispheric field-aligned currents deduced from the Ørsted satellite and the ground geomagnetic observations, in OIST-4 Proceedings, edited by P. Stauning, H. Lühr, P. Ultré-Guérard, J. LaBreque, M. Purucker, F. Primdahl, J. Joergenson, F. Christiansen, P. Hoeg, and K. Lauritsen, p. 159, DMI, Copenhagen, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zmuda, A. J. and J. C. Armstrong, The diurnal flow pattern of field-aligned currents, J. Geophys. Res., 79, 4611–4619, 1974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zmuda, A. J., J. H. Martin, and F. T. Heuring, Transverse magnetic disturbances at 1100 kilometers in the auroral region, J. Geophys. Res., 71, 5033–5045, 1966.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GFZ Potsdam, Telegrafenberg, D-14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Patricia Ritter & Hermann Lühr

Authors
  1. Patricia Ritter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hermann Lühr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patricia Ritter.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ritter, P., Lühr, H. Curl-B technique applied to Swarm constellation for determining field-aligned currents. Earth Planet Sp 58, 463–476 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351942

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351942

Key words

  • External magnetic field
  • high latitude currents
  • field-aligned currents
  • current determination