The way in which field-aligned currents, or Birkeland currents, are distributed in Earth's magnetosphere is critical to understanding the times at which Earth feels the largest effects from space weather. This is because Birkeland currents close through Hall and Pedersen currents flowing in Earth's ionosphere (Cowley, 2000). Ampère's law means that these currents cause magnetic perturbations that can be measured on Earth's surface, and Faraday's law in turn means that those magnetic perturbations induce currents on the surface, commonly known as geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). GICs are a key area of scientific interest and have been reviewed on multiple occasions (Ngwira & Pulkkinen, 2019;Pirjola, 2002;Thomson et al., 2009); they are also a key area of policy interest, due to the adverse impact of GICs on electrical power networks and the associated risk of high economic costs (Eastwood et al., 2018). Several authors have previously examined the average behavior of Birkeland currents. Christiansen et al. (2002) reported maximum average current densities of ∼0.2 μA m −2 observed by Ørsted and MAGSAT during quiet times as opposed to average densities of ∼0.5 μA m −2 during disturbed times. Juusola et al. (2014) reported maximum average current densities of ∼0.7 μA m −2 using CHAMP data during 2000-2010. Workayehu et al. (2019) used Swarm data from 2014 to 2017 and reported maximum means of 0.4 μA m −2 which is lower than Juusola et al. (2014) but consistent with Christiansen et al. (2002); this may indicate that CHAMP overestimated the current densities or may indicate that 2000-2010 was generally more active than 2014-2017, consistent with Solar Cycle 24 being generally quieter than the preceding solar cycle. Xiong et al. (2020) used DMSP data during 2010-2014, and reported the maximum average current density as ∼0.2 μA m −2 , which is lower than both Juusola et al. (2014) and Workayehu et al.