Observations of the seasonal dependence of the thermal plasma density in the Southern Hemisphere auroral zone and polar cap at <formula alphabet="latin">1RE

Details Observations of the seasonal dependence of the thermal plasma density in the Southern Hemisphere auroral zone and polar cap at <formula alphabet="latin">1RE Observations of the seasonal dependence of the thermal plasma density in the Southern Hemisphere auroral zone and polar cap at <formula alphabet="latin">1RE

Sep 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001jgr...10619023j&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 106, Issue A9, p. 19023-19034

Physics

18

Magnetospheric Physics: Auroral Phenomena, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, Magnetospheric Physics: Polar Cap Phenomena

Scientific paper

Synoptic maps of the thermal plasma density in the auroral zone and polar cap around 1RE altitude are produced from measurements of Polar spacecraft floating potential during 1 year of perigee passes. The densities are accurate to around a factor of 2 in this region of space. These measurements, which provide the first comprehensive maps of the thermal plasma density over the polar cap and auroral oval, show clear variations in plasma density due to solar illumination of the ionosphere. Number density increases by a factor of 5 for illuminated verses nonilluminated ionospheric conditions over the entire auroral oval and polar cap. The maps delineate the global extent of the large-scale auroral density cavity near 70°+/-5° invariant latitude. These maps further show that the depth of the density cavity is strongly influenced by solar illumination. The minimum average density (~0.1 cm-3) occurs in darkness near 1900 magnetic local time.

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