On current continuity at the Harang discontinuity

Although the Harang discontinuity has so far been identified in terms of various phenomena (such as ground magnetic fields, ionospheric currents, auroral features, and electric fields), the loci defined by those different phenomena do not always coincide. It is suggested that the Harang discontinuity may not be a line boundary across which the electric field changes its direction simply from poleward to equatorward, but that the field gradually rotates counterclockwise in a narrow region; thus the westward electric field dominates there. In such a case, no field-aligned current is necessarily required to flow from or into the discontinuity region. This view may be contrasted with the conventional view that an intense upward field-aligned current should flow from the Harang discontinuity. A model is presented in which the poleward ionospheric current (the Hall current resulting from the westward electric field) in the Harang discontinuity region connects the eastward electrojet and the westward electrojet.