Substorm Current Wedge at Earth and Mercury

Abstract

This chapter reviews magnetospheric substorms and dipolarizations observed at both Earth and Mercury. It briefly discusses new insights into the physics of the substorm current wedge (SCW) that have been revealed the past few years. The formation and evolution of the SCW are closely tied to the braking of flows convecting flux away from the reconnection site and the resultant near-planet flux pileup that creates the dipolarization. At Earth, the SCW plays a critical role in substorms, coupling magnetospheric to ionospheric motions, deflecting incoming plasma flows, and regulating the dissipation of pressure built up in the near-Earth magnetosphere during dipolarization. The lack of a conducting boundary at Mercury provides a natural experiment to examine the role of an ionosphere on regulating magnetospheric convection. Energetic particles may play a much greater role within substorms at Mercury than at Earth, providing another opportunity for comparative studies.