Modeling Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses

Details Modeling Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses Modeling Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm52d03w&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM52D-03

Physics

2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

We have used global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere and test particle calculations to investigate the sources and losses of magnetospheric plasma. In the test particle calculations we follow the trajectories of solar wind ions in the electric and magnetic fields from the global MHD simulations and use the results to investigate the effects of physics not included in MHD. When the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is northward solar wind plasma enters the magnetosphere due to high latitude reconnection. From the MHD simulation we estimate that ~5X1026 ions/s enter the magnetosphere. However when we include particle motion not included in MHD the entry rate increases by more than a factor of two. Many of the additional ions enter the magnetosphere in the polar cusp regions and many of those undergo non-adiabatic motion. When the IMF is southward the reconnection site moves to the low-latitude magnetopause and we estimate that ~1X1028 ions/s enter the magnetosphere in the MHD calculation. However, this plasma doesn't reach the inner magnetosphere. Instead it exits the distant boundary of the simulation. In the MHD simulation the plasma populating the inner regions of the magnetosphere comes from the ionospheric boundary. In the particle calculations however some of the solar wind ions convect into the inner parts of the magnetosphere. In this case the inner magnetosphere plasma has both solar wind and ionospheric contributions.

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