Relative importance of ring and tail currents to Dst under extremely disturbed conditions

Relative ring current (RC) and tail current (TC) contributions to Dst were investigated on the basis of the statistical study of 70 magnetic storms of different intensities. Special attention was paid to the extremely disturbed conditions during magnetic storms in October-November 2003. Variations of the magnetic field produced by magnetospheric currents on the Earth's surface were calculated using paraboloid model of the magnetosphere A2000 [Alexeev, I.I., Belenkaya, E.S., Kalegaev, V.V., Feldstein, Y.I., Grafe, A., 1996. Journal of Geophysical Research 101,7737; Alexeev, I.I., Kalegaev, V.V., Belenkaya, E.S., Bobrovnikov, S.Yu., Feldstein, Ya.I., Gromova, L.I., 2001. Journal of Geophysical Research 106, 25683], taking into account the effect of terrestrial induced currents. For each magnetic storm we calculated Dst and contributions produced by large-scale magnetospheric current systems. The relative RC and TC contributions for each event at the storm maximum were examined in relationship to the peak pressure-corrected Dst value. Analysis of Dst sources confirms the conclusions of Kalegaev and Ganushkina [2005. In: Pulkkinen, T., Tsyganenko, N.A., Friedel, R.H.W. (Eds.), Physics and Modeling of the Inner Magnetosphere, AGU Geophysical Monograph 155. AGU, Washington, DC, p. 293] and Kalegaev and Makarenkov [2006. Geomagnetism and Aeronomy 46, 570] about saturation of the TC effect under extremely disturbed conditions. The RC becomes the dominant Dst source during severe magnetic storms, but during moderate storms its contribution to Dst is comparable with TC's contribution. The RC injection amplitude increases with the growth of magnetospheric disturbance level.