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Abstract We investigate the applicability and performance of the plasma physics based WINDMI model to the analysis and identification of substorm onsets. There are several substorm onset criteria that have been developed into event lists, either from auroral observations or from auroral electrojet features. Five of these substorm onset lists are available at the SuperMAG website. We analyze these lists, aggregate them and use the WINDMI model to assess the identified events, emphasizing the loading/unloading mechanism in substorm dynamics. The WINDMI model employs eight differential equations utilizing solar wind data measured at L1 by the ACE satellite as input to generate outputs such as the magnetotail current, the ring current and the field‐aligned currents (FACs). In particular, the WINDMI model current output represents the westward auroral electrojet, which is related to the substorm SML index. We analyze a decade of solar wind and substorm onset data from 1998 to 2007, encompassing 39,863 onsets. Our findings reveal a significant correlation, with WINDMI‐derived enhancements in FAC coinciding with the identified substorm events approximately 32% of the time. This suggests that a substantial proportion of substorms may be attributed to solar wind driving that results in the loading and unloading of energy in the magnetotail.