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DU Aimin, LUO Hao, GE Yasong, ZHANG Ying, XU Wenyao. Polar Cap Potential Saturation and Ionospheric Convection Patterns during Superstorms. Chinese Journal of Space Science, 2026, 46(5): 1-9 doi: 10.11728/cjss2026.05.2025-0223
Citation: DU Aimin, LUO Hao, GE Yasong, ZHANG Ying, XU Wenyao. Polar Cap Potential Saturation and Ionospheric Convection Patterns during Superstorms. Chinese Journal of Space Science, 2026, 46(5): 1-9 doi: 10.11728/cjss2026.05.2025-0223
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Polar Cap Potential Saturation and Ionospheric Convection Patterns during Superstorms

doi: 10.11728/cjss2026.05.2025-0223 cstr: 32142.14.cjss.2025-0223
  • 1.

    Key Laboratory of Deep Petroleum Intelligent Exploration and Development, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029

  • 2.

    College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029

Funds:  Supported by the Deep Earth Probe and Mineral Resources Exploration-National Science and Technology Major Project (2024ZD1002502) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42374217, 42330207,42274224)
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  • Author Bio:

    Professor at Institude of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is interensted in solar wind-magnetosphere coupling and the resulting geomagnetic strom and substorm processes. E-mail: luohao@mail.iggcas.ac.cn

  • Received Date: 2025-12-20
  • Rev Recd Date: 2026-09-08
    • Available Online: 2026-09-14
    Abstract
  • Five super intense magnetic storms (with minimum Dst < −200 nT) were examined to investigate the relationship between Polar Cap Potential (PCP) saturation and ionospheric convection patterns. A quantitative method was used to determine whether or not PCP was saturated by applying both linear and nonlinear (exponential) fits for each event. The results showed that PCP saturation occurred for two of five. The two events with saturation had distorted ionospheric convection patterns (D-CONV) with asymmetric vortices, while the other three events without PCP saturation had well-known standard convection (S-CONV) with quasi-symmetric twin vortices. The authors conclude that sporadic midnight sector substorm electric fields may contribute to the asymmetric convection patterns and PCP saturation, in agreement with previous speculations. Further analyses are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

     

    • The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.
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