Other
Scientific paper
May 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agusmsm24a..07j&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2007, abstract #SM24A-07
Other
2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431), 2768 Plasmasphere, 2774 Radiation Belts
Scientific paper
The plasmapause separates cold dense plasma in the inner magnetosphere from hot, low-density outer magnetosphere plasma. This boundary is very dynamic in response to changes in magnetospheric convection and other stormtime phenomena. The outer radiation belt is also dynamic during stormtime in terms of both radial location and energetic particle population. It is proposed that outer radiation belt particles are variously depleted and energized due to wave-particle interactions inside and outside the plasmasphere. Testing this hypothesis requires simultaneous observations of energetic particles and the plasmapause location. We use DMSP identifications of the plasmapause signature in the ionosphere (specifically the light ion trough) to derive plasmapause locations. This offers significantly improved temporal coverage given the continuous multiyear coverage by multiple DMSP satellites and the overlapping radiation belt observations by SAMPEX. The light ion trough location is semi-automatically identified from DMSP Retarding Potential Analyzer observations of light ion densities, then mapped along magnetic field lines to the plasmapause. Initial comparisons show good agreement between these plasmapause locations and those obtained from IMAGE EUV observations. Case studies also show good correlations between DMSP-identified plasmapause locations and SAMPEX observations of outer radiation belt particle distributions and precipitating particle microbursts. This approach will eventually provide an extensive database of plasmapause locations, permitting us to quantify the relationship between the light ion trough and the plasmapause, and improve understanding of the relationship between the plasmapause location and the outer radiation belt.
Anderson Philip C.
Goldstein Jeffrey Jay
Johnston Robert W.
Kanekal Shrikanth G.
O'Brien Thomas P.
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