Abstract
We present a statistical model of the ionospheric electric field derived
from line-of-sight plasma velocity measurements from the Super Dual
Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). Electric potential patterns are
produced using an established technique that models the electric field
as a spherical harmonic expansion of the ionospheric electric field.
Improvements over existing models are achieved by the use of novel
parameterisations that capture three major sources of time-variability
of the coupled solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system. The first
source of variability relates directly to the time-dependence of the
system to the upstream solar wind conditions, specifically the strength
and orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field. The
magnetosphere-ionosphere system is not static under continuous driving
by the solar wind but evolves with time, even if the solar wind
conditions themselves remain steady. We account for this by defining a
solar wind steadiness timescale with which we parameterise the electric
field. The second source of variability relates to the storage and
release of energy in the magnetosphere that is associated with
magnetospheric substorms. The electric field evolves throughout the
substorms cycle, and its morphology is strongly influenced by the
location of substorm onset. We therefore parameterise by substorm onset
location and the time relative to substorm onset. Lastly we account for
the variability introduced by geomagnetic storms. The ionospheric
electric field evolves differently through each phase of a storm, so we
parameterise by storm phase. We discuss the details of the model, and
assess its performance by comparison to other models and to
observations.