Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm51b10h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM51B-10
Physics
2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2760 Plasma Convection, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
The magnetospheric flows and currents associated with ionospheric convection transients such as traveling convection vortices (TCV's) are poorly understood, though observations in the high latitude ionosphere certainly suggest that they are not confined to the immediate vicinity of the magnetopause. Around 1500 UT on 11 April 1997 the solar wind number density, and hence dynamic pressure, dropped suddenly by a factor of two. The effects of this sudden change were observed by a large array of high latitude magnetometers in the northern hemisphere and were simulated using a global MHD code. The changes in the ionospheric currents observed by the magnetometers are very similar to those generated in the MHD simulation. A sequence of two vortices formed in the prenoon ionosphere and moved dawnwards. The locations and motions of these vortices in both the observations and simulations are very similar, giving good credence to the simulation results. In the MHD simulation the magnetopause moves outwards rapidly in response to the pressure decrease. This motion launches a rarefaction wave that propagates rapidly tailward setting up flows in the equatorial plane. These flows soon develop into large vortices that fill the outer half of the magnetospheric cavity. These vortical flows, which are semi-global in nature and not directly associated with the magnetopause motions, are directly related to the flows observed in the ionosphere.
Fedder Joel A.
Hughes Jeffrey W.
Murr David Lee
Slinker Steven P.
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