Left-hand panel: baseline global temperature profile (solid line) compared to the profiles presented by Hubbard et al. (1997) (dotted line) and Moses et al. (2000) (dashed line). The thermospheric part of the Moses profile is based on the data of Smith et al. (1983). Middle panel: heating profiles per unit volume for the baseline temperature profile in the left-hand panel. Solid line: global baseline heating rate; dashed line: asymmetric heating rate imposed across a limited longitude–latitude range (see text). Right-hand panel: conductivity profiles in mho m⁻¹ for the baseline temperature profile in the left-hand panel. Solid line: Pedersen conductivity; dotted line: Hall conductivity.