The storm response of the ionosphere and thermosphere produces
structures over a wide range of time and spatial scales. To
understand the storm-time behavior of this system, researchers
must address the following science challenge: AIMI-1. Understand
how the ionosphere-thermosphere system responds to, and
regulates, magnetospheric forcing over global, regional, and
local scales.  An important element of the dynamics of the IT
system is the transfer of energy and momentum between the plasma
and neutral components of the system and the role that electric
and magnetic fields serve in accentuating and sometimes
moderating this interchange. The pathways through which ions and
neutrals interact are of course fundamental to space physics,
given that they occur at all planets with atmospheres, at
comets, and within the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. For
example, in Earth’s ionosphere at an altitude from 100 to 130 km
the collisions between ions and electrons and neutrals enable
current to flow across the local