What is the neutral wind in height-integrated ionospheric electrodynamics?

Hatch, Spencer Mark; Burchill, Johnathan; Vanhamäki, Heikki; de Mesquita, Rafael Luiz Araujo; Laundal, Karl Magnus

doi:10.5194/angeo-44-715-2026

Articles | Volume 44, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-715-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-715-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 44, issue 2

Regular paper

|

05 Aug 2026

Regular paper |

| 05 Aug 2026

What is the neutral wind in height-integrated ionospheric electrodynamics?

Spencer Mark Hatch, Johnathan Burchill, Heikki Vanhamäki, Rafael Luiz Araujo de Mesquita, and Karl Magnus Laundal

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-44-715-2026-supplement

Data sets

Resource for Hatch et al (2024), "What is the neutral wind in height-integrated electrodynamics?" S. M. Hatch and R. L. A. Mesquita https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11091983

Model code and software

Resource for Hatch et al. (2024), "What is the neutral wind in height-integrated electrodynamics?" S. M. Hatch and R. L. A. Mesquita https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11091983

iri2016 M. Hirsch https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.240895

Pure Python International Geomagnetic Reference Field (ppigrf) K. M. Laundal https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5962660

Short summary

Atmospheric winds at high altitudes (> 100 km) can play an important role in the electrodynamic processes that govern how ionospheric plasma interacts with Earth's neutral atmosphere. Here we investigate how a common idea in studies of ionospheric electrodynamics—that atmospheric winds can be ignored or represented via an average value—ignores the high variability of these winds. This variability forces a different formulation of the equations that govern ionosphere-thermosphere electrodynamics.