Spontaneous substorms and ordered type of magnetospheric disturbances during the superstorm of November 20, 2003

The interval 0000-1400 UT of the superstorm of November 20, 2003, has been studies based on the ACE/WIND data and the MIT2 magnetogram inversion technique. The distributions of the electric potential and currents, field-aligned currents, and Joule heat in the ionosphere have been calculated. The variable magnetotail length and powers coming into the magnetosphere, ionosphere and ring current have been estimated. The selected superstorm intervals, when it became possible to identify the disturbance mode produced by the interaction between the variable solar wind dynamic pressure and IMF effects, have been described. Spontaneous substorms, two types of driven responses to changes in IMF or in the solar wind dynamic pressure (P _d ), zero events at simultaneous jumps of IMF and P _d , and a previously unknown mode of saturation of the ionospheric electric field at a redistribution of the energy coming into the magnetosphere between the ionosphere and ring current are among the selected modes.