ELECTRIC-POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONJUGATE POINTS IN MIDDLE LATITUDES CAUSED BY ASYMMETRIC DYNAMO IN THE IONOSPHERE

A new method is proposed for calculation of electric charge distribution in the ionosphere associated with the dynamo action for any given air motion. If the dynamo action is asymmetric in the northern and southern hemispheres, the electric potential difference of the order of 1 k V will be produced (if the field-aligned current is prohibited) at the conjugate pair of stations in middle latitudes although the potential difference will be almost cancelled by the field-aligned currents in the magnetosphere flowing from the winter hemisphere to the summer hemisphere. It is also shown that the height-gradient of the ionospheric conductivity plays a very important role for charge separation in the ionosphere, the effect of which intensifies the eastward equatorial electrojet on the dayside. © 1979, Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. All rights reserved.