The Auroral Electrojet Index, AE, is designed to provide a global, quantitative measure of auroral zone magnetic activity produced by enhanced ionospheric currents flowing below and within the auroral oval. Ideally, it is the total range of deviation at an instant of time from quiet day values of the horizontal magnetic field (H) around the auroral oval. AE has been usefully employed both qualitatively and quantitatively as a correlative index in studies of substorm morphology, the behavior of communication satellites, radio propagation, radio scintillation, and the coupling between the interplanetary magnetic field and the earth's magnetosphere. AE data is maintained at WDC Kyoto and NGDC.

AE index can be directly downloaded from the websites and ftp servers given below.

AE Observations in near real time
Graphical monitoring of AE index in near real time is provided by WDC Kyoto
http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ae_realtime/today/today.html

AE Archive
http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dstae/index.html
Selected years of AE are available for download from NGDC FTP site ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/STP/GEOMAGNETIC_DATA/INDICES/AURORAL_ELECTROJET

Historical AE index data is used for the following tasks: