This five-year, $1.286 million Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences will fund research into stormtime magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and the enhancement of the dawnside auroral electrojet. Under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), which supports basic research in atmospheric, earth, and ocean sciences to expand understanding of the integrated Earth system, the Johns Hopkins University will investigate the ionospheric current and its magnetospheric source during geomagnetic storms. The research aims to characterize observationally and understand a stormtime current system in the dawn local time sector, where ground magnetic disturbances often peak in magnitude. It seeks new insights into stormtime electrodynamics and contributions to models that can predict hazardous space weather events impacting infrastructure systems. The project will critically evaluate hypotheses about the generation process responsible for forming the intense dawnside wedge current system observed during storms.