Analysis of thermospheric response to magnetospheric inputs

First, in order to show the contribution of the electric field variability to the energy input and thermospheric temperature, model results are compared for simulations where Joule heating is calculated with the average electric field (called "simple Joule heating") and where Joule heating is adjusted according to the Poynting flux from the empirical model.

In the northern (summer) hemisphere, the Poynting flux has a peak in the dayside cusp, which is missing in the altitude-integrated simple Joule heating. The hemispheric integral of the Poynting flux is approximately 30% larger than the integral of simple Joule heating, and the polar average (poleward of 40°) temperature calculated with the Poynting flux increases by 85 - 95 K, which is more than 50% of the temperature increase caused by the polar energy inputs.