Electrodynamics of convection in the inner magnetosphere

During the past ten years, substantial progress has been made in the development of quantitative models of convection in the magnetosphere and of the electrodynamic processes that couple that magnetosphere and ionosphere. Using a computational scheme first proposed by Vasyliunas, the convection models under consideration separate the three-dimensional problem of convection in the inner magnetosphere/ionosphere into a pair of two-dimensional problems coupled by Birkeland currents flowing between the two regions. The logic, development, and major results of the inner magnetosphere convection model are reviewed with emphasis on ionospheric and magnetospheric currents. A major theoretical result of the models has been the clarification of the relationship between the region 1/region 2 picture of field-aligned currents and the older partial ring current/tail current interruption picture of substorm dynamics.