A New Method for Analyzing F‐Region Neutral Wind Response to Ion Convection in the Nightside Auroral Oval

AbstractHigh‐latitude neutral winds have a number of drivers, both from solar and magnetospheric origins. Because of this, the neutral wind response to changes in ionospheric convection is not well understood. Previous calculations of response times resulted in a wide range of responses, from tens of minutes to hours. We present a new weighted windowed time‐lagged correlation (weighted WTLC) method for calculating the neutral wind response time. This method provides a time evolution of the neutral wind response time and considers the effects of all thermospheric forces, while previous methods were only capable of one or the other. We use data from SDIs, ASIs, and PFISR to calculate the neutral wind response time using this new method in three case studies. The results are visually validated, and the weighted WTLC method was able to correctly calculate the neutral wind response time. The time evolution of the weighted WTLC time is then compared to previous neutral wind response time calculations in order to investigate the role of ion‐drag on neutral winds. For the substorm event on 2013 Feb 28, we see a shorter response time from the weighted WTLC method, ranging from 0 to 15 min, than the e‐folding time, ranging from 30 to 355 min. The relationship between the two calculation methods and their implications about the ion‐drag force is discussed. Using the time‐dependent feature of the weighted WTLC method, we observe the neutral wind response time decrease over the course of a substorm event, indicating ion‐neutral coupling increased as the substorm progressed.