Identifying the Magnetospheric Drivers of Giant Undulations: Global Modeling of the Evolving Inner Magnetosphere and Its Auroral Manifestations

Abstract We present the first global geospace simulation to reproduce auroral giant undulations (GUs). To identify their magnetospheric drivers, we employ the MAGE (Multiscale Atmosphere‐Geospace Environment) model in a case study of a geomagnetic storm for which there were spacecraft‐ and ground‐based observations of GUs. The model reproduces the spatial and temporal scales of the GUs as well as the presence of duskside subauroral polarization streams (SAPS) and plasmapause undulations. Based on our modeling, we are able to identify the magnetospheric drivers of GUs as mesoscale ring current injections which, after drifting westward, create inverted regions of flux‐tube entropy (FTE) and subsequent interchange instability. Outward‐protruding interchange fingers disrupt shielding of the inner magnetosphere, creating longitudinally localized ripples in magnetospheric convection equatorward of the magnetospheric instability, which structure the plasmapause and duskside diffuse precipitation. While not causal, SAPS and plasmapause undulations are a consequence of the unstable magnetospheric configuration.