Ring current and the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling during the superstorm of 20 November 2003

We investigated the impact on the terrestrial ring current of a coronal mass ejection (CME) and the associated magnetic cloud that severely disturbed the Earth's magnetosphere on 20 November 2003. This CME decreased the Dst index to −472 nT, which makes it the second largest storm, based on the minimum Dst index values, observed between 1957 and 2004. Data from the DMSP, NOAA, and LANL satellites showed the unique characteristics of this storm; a polar cap potential that increased to at least 200 kV, a polar cap boundary that moved as low as about 60° MLAT, a plasma sheet density that increased to 5 cm−3 at L = 6.6 when the Dst index was near its minimum, and the inner edge of the plasma sheet ion population that penetrated into a region for which L ≤ 1.5. In order to study the dynamics of the ring current and the associated magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling, we performed a ring current simulation that computed the evolution of the phase space density of the ring current ions and the closure of the electric current between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. Major results were as follows: (1) The ring current, in terms of the Dst index and the inner edge of the plasma sheet, can result from the enhancement of the convection electric field, given the polar cap potentials used in the model; (2) The solar wind particles probably penetrated quickly into the geosynchronous altitude on the nightside with a lag of about 80 min, resulting in further enhancement of the ring current; (3) Dense geocoronal neutral hydrogen or a large coefficient of pitch angle diffusion (>10−4 s−1) is probably needed to account for the rapid motion of the inner edge of the plasma sheet (or the ring current) population to a higher L value; (4) Both the simulated and observed field‐aligned current (FAC) distributions show multiple current sheets, rather than the normally expected two current sheets. Fluctuations in the polar cap potential and the plasma sheet density are believed to cause the multiple sheets of field‐aligned currents; (5) The equatorward edge of the Region 2 type field‐aligned currents was observed to expand as low as 40° MLAT, which is consistent with the simulation; and (6) The convection pattern can be much more complicated than an average one due to a strong Region 2 FAC. A noticeable feature was the reversal of the zonal ionospheric plasma flow that emerged on the dawnside. In particular, a westward flow was observed in the equatorial region of the eastward plasm