Investigation of Joule Heating in Polar Regions - Antarctica

We report in this paper for the first time the calculation of the Joule heating in Antarctic upper atmosphere and discuss its relationship with the solar wind forcing. We have used theoretical models to calculate the Poynting flux flowing onto the earth’s ionosphere and associated Joule heating due to the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere dynamo. The investigation reveals that the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) has a strong influence on the total heating. Maximum heating is noted when tilt angle is 15 , and IMF clock angle is 180 . For southward IMF, total heating is roughly few hundred of gigawatts.