Transient, Turbulent Hall Currents in the Sunlit Terrestrial Ionosphere

Transient, Turbulent Hall Currents in the Sunlit Terrestrial Ionosphere | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Transient, Turbulent Hall Currents in the Sunlit Terrestrial Ionosphere Magnus Ivarsen, Devin Huyghebaert, Yaqi Jin, Yukinaga Miyashita, and 11 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5313766/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 07 Oct, 2025 Read the published version in Physical Review E → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract At night in Earth's polar regions, energetic aurorae frequently penetrate into the atmosphere, driving turbulent electrojet currents in the bottomside ionosphere. During the day, however, Earth's plasma environment become highly conductive, caused by the constant extreme ultraviolet radiation emitted from the Sun. The high-conductivityplasma in the dayside ionosphere can effectively short out plasma turbulence around aurorae, and so electrojet turbulence is rare in the dayside high-latitude ionosphere. In this report, we show observations to the contrary. During the onset of the 23 April 2023 geomagnetic storm, we observe prolific small-scale plasma turbulence in the dayside E-region on closed magnetic field-lines just equatorward of the cusp. Using data from two orbiting satellites, we infer the location of the cusp and the widespread presence of diffuse aurorae, through observations of particle precipitation and wave-particle interactions near the magnetospheric equator. The diffuse aurorae pass electric fields and produce unstable gradients in the plasma density. The number and intensity of the falling charges overwhelm the capacity of the lower ionosphere to neutralize the charges, spurring the growth of turbulent electrojets. We thereby establish correlation and causality between observations of chorus wave activity near the magnetospheric equator and observations of turbulent electrojets in the ionosphere on closed magnetic field-lines. We discuss the implications that this discovery bears for the electrodynamics of the dayside ionosphere. Earth and environmental sciences/Space physics/Aurora Earth and environmental sciences/Space physics/Magnetospheric physics ionosphere hall currents electrojet particle precipitation turbulence farley buneman radar icebear superdarn arase Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files videocompressed.mp4 Event Video supplementary.pdf Suplementary Data Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 07 Oct, 2025 Read the published version in Physical Review E → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5313766","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":370170087,"identity":"2e2a8327-7599-4745-8ffc-c0d6bb534735","order_by":0,"name":"Magnus 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