Field‐aligned currents from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) were combined with simultaneous and coincident observations of ionospheric conductivities made by the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) in Alaska for 20 geomagnetically active days. The height‐integrated conductivities (conductances) were determined from the electron densities measured by the radar between 80 and 200 km altitude. Binning and averaging the data by field‐aligned current density and magnetic local time, we find that the currents correlate with conductances in both upward and downward current regions over some magnetic local times. The strongest correlation is seen in the late evening and morning sectors, with the Hall conductances two to three times larger than the Pedersen conductances for the same values of the field‐aligned current. The observed correlations reflect the mean energy of auroral precipitation, the contributions from electrons and protons to producing enhanced conductances, and the availability of charge carriers on auroral field lines. We apply linear fitting and smoothing to the correlations to construct an empirical model for specifying auroral conductances globally from AMPERE field‐aligned current maps. The energy fluxes from precipitating particles derived from the model conductances compare well with those derived using AMPERE data combined with satellite‐based measurements of far ultraviolet emissions, suggesting the results obtained at Poker Flat may be applicable to all high latitude locations. The ability to estimate conductances from AMPERE field‐aligned current maps provides the means to develop a global conductance model for the auroral ionosphere.

Icebergs calving into Greenlandic Fjords frequently experience strongly sheared flows over their draft, but the impact of this flow past the iceberg is not fully captured by existing parameterizations. We present a series of novel laboratory experiments to determine the dependence of submarine melting along iceberg sides on a background flow. We show, for the first time, that two distinct regimes of melting exist depending on the flow magnitude and consequent behavior of melt plumes (side‐attached or side‐detached), with correspondingly different meltwater spreading characteristics. When this velocity dependence is included in melt parameterizations, melt rates estimated for observed icebergs in the attached regime increase, consistent with observed iceberg submarine melt rates. We show that both attached and detached plume regimes are relevant to icebergs observed in a Greenland fjord. Further, depending on the regime, iceberg meltwater may either be confined to a surface layer or distributed over the iceberg draft.

Measurements of field‐aligned currents from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment are combined with measurements of far ultraviolet emissions from the Global Ultraviolet Imager on the Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite to examine the correlation between parallel currents and auroral electron energy flux. The energy flux is derived from the far ultraviolet emissions in the N2 Lyman‐Birge‐Hopfield bands. We find that energy flux correlates with field‐aligned currents in both upward and downward current regions. The correlations vary with magnetic local time with the strongest dependences near magnetic midnight. The data are binned and averaged to construct a model of precipitating particle energy flux as a function of field‐aligned current and magnetic local time. With Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment data as input, the model yields accurate estimates of the hemispheric power input from precipitating particles.