Annales Geophysicae
Annales Geophysicae
ANGEO
Articles | Volume 43, issue 2
Articles | Volume 43, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-43-667-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-43-667-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 43, issue 2
Regular paper
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29 Oct 2025
Regular paper | Highlight paper |  | 29 Oct 2025

Properties of large-amplitude kilometer-scale field-aligned currents at auroral latitudes, as derived from Swarm satellites

Yun-Liang Zhou and Hermann Lühr

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This research significantly enhances our understanding of small-scale field-aligned currents observed in the cusp and auroral regions of the high-latitude ionosphere. The investigation utilizes dual-spacecraft high-resolution magnetic field measurements of the Swarm mission to reveal new characteristics of field-aligned currents across multiple scale sizes and temporal variations spanning 0.04 to 5 seconds.
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Short summary
By using magnetic field recordings sampled at 50 Hz by Swarm A and C satellites around the quasi-coplanar orbit configuration, near 1 October 2021, we investigate the properties of kilometer-scale field-aligned currents (FACs) at auroral latitudes. The kilometer-scale (0.2-5 km) FACs exhibit short-lived (<1 s) randomly appearing large current density spikes (partly exceeding 100 µA m-2). Preferred occurrences are the noon to prenoon (nightside to dusk) sector around 80° (70°) MLat, respectively.
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