Electrojet

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An electrojet is an electric current which travels around the E region of the Earth's ionosphere. There are three electrojets: one above the magnetic equator (the equatorial electrojet), and one each near the Northern and Southern Polar Circles (the Auroral Electrojets). Electrojets are Hall currents carried primarily by electrons at altitudes from 100 to 150 km. In this region the electron gyro frequency (Larmor frequency) is much greater than the electron-neutral collision frequency. In contrast, the principal E region ions (O2+ and NO+) have gyrofrequencies much lower than the ion-neutral collision frequency.

Kristian Birkeland was the first to suggest that polar electric currents (or auroral electrojets) are connected to a system of filaments (now called "Birkeland currents") that flow along geomagnetic field lines into and away from the polar region.^[1]