How do auroral substorms depend on Earth's dipole magnetic moment?

Abstract

Earth's dipole magnetic moment M is known to decrease by ∼9% over the past 150 years. It has been argued that the decrease in M makes the near-Earth space environment different. We investigated how the change in M affects the development of an auroral substorm by increasing and decreasing M by a factor of 1.5 in global magnetohydrodynamics simulation. The ionospheric conductivity decreases with increasing M, in accordance with the aid of empirical relations. When we imposed the southward interplanetary magnetic field, an auroral substorm took place regardless of M, but its development depends largely on M. When M is lower, (1) the expansion onset takes place later, (2) the auroral electrojet develops slowly, and (3) the maximum auroral electrojet increases. The first two consequences are probably associated with the slow magnetospheric convection as manifested by the polar cap potential drop. The third consequence is associated with the nonlinear dependence of substorm-associated field-aligned currents (FACs) on the ionospheric conductivity. The maximum values of the westward auroral electrojet and the net FACs increase with decreasing M, whereas the incident magnetic energy into the magnetosphere decreases with decreasing M. This implies that the efficiency of the generation of the substorm-associated FACs increases with decreasing M. It is also found that, for the lower M-value, the auroral oval shifts equatorward during the growth phase and expands more equatorward and poleward during the expansion phase. Evolution of substorms depends largely on the value of Earth's dipole moment and the ionospheric conductivity.