Other
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm61a01b&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM61A-01 INVITED
Other
2712 Electric Fields (2411), 2728 Magnetosheath, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
During a period of extremely quiet solar wind conditions from March 8 to March 10, 1997, there were periods of strong transient activity observed in the ionosphere by radars and magnetometers. The data show that transient events were occurring at many locations in the ionosphere, but that events at one location were not correlated with events at other locations. Many, if not all, of the events occurred in a quasi-periodic fashion. We find no evidence that these transient events were directly driven by variations in the solar wind or the interplanetary magnetic field. The quasi-periodic nature of the events, in conjunction with the absence of external driving features, suggests that the events were the result of natural modes within the magnetosheath-magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Caution must therefore be used when searching for external causes of transient events. Although the individual events appear not to be externally driven, the ultimate energy source must still lie within the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction. It is possible that energy previously stored in the tail through magnetic merging is being released sporadically. This scenario does not explain why the sporadic energy release only occurred for a brief period many hours after the energy was originally stored in the tail. Magnetic reconnection at the time of the bursts appears to be unlikely as the energy source, since the magnitude of the IMF is so small. Although the solar wind velocity is moderate, the relatively high solar wind density suggests that viscous drag along the flanks of the magnetopause is the most likely energy source.
Baker Kile B.
Pinnock Michael
Walker Marilyn A.
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