In this month’s post, Karl Magnus Laundal explains a newly developed empirical model for the full high latitude current system of the Earth’s ionosphere, AMPS (Average Magnetic field and Polar Current System). The model is available and documented in python code, published under the acronym pyAMPS. The community is invited to download and explore the electric currents and magentic fiel ...[Read More]
The average magnetic field and polar current system (AMPS) model
Example of field aligned (red/blue) currents from both polar regions from the AMPS model. Grey pins represent the full horizontal current vector. The plot was made with the following input to the model: Solar Wind velocity: 350 km/s, IMF Bz: -8 nT, IMF By: -8 nT, dipole tilt angle: 20 degrees, F10.7: 80 sfu.