Dayside Erosion During Intervals of Tenuous Solar Wind

Details Dayside Erosion During Intervals of Tenuous Solar Wind Dayside Erosion During Intervals of Tenuous Solar Wind

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm41b0800f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM41B-0800

Physics

2409 Current Systems (2708), 2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2730 Magnetosphere: Inner, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

We present six data examples where we infer erosion of the dayside magnetosphere during intervals of very tenuous solar wind (density < 1 cm-3). The interplanetary observations were made by the Wind spacecraft when the average solar wind dynamic pressure P dyn and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz were in the ranges (0.07, 0.62) nPa and (-7.6, -0.9) nT, respectively. The inner magnetospheric signature of erosion we focus on is a decrease in the strength of the geostationary magnetic field, as monitored by NOAA's GOES spacecraft. We obtain this decrease as a function of IMF Bz by comparing each event with a reference day, May 11, 1999. During the reference day the lowest P dyn of the set was attained (0.07 nPa), IMF Bz > 0, and the geomagnetic field at geostationary orbit was dipolar. The central point we make is that although compared to the reference day the P dyn in each event is higher, the strength of the geostationary field is weaker. We interpret this as evidence that the field compression due to P dyn has been overcome by the field depression due to erosion. Correcting empirically for the compression of the geostationary field due to solar wind dynamic pressure, we find that for the tenuous solar winds we consider the decrease of the geostationary field, Δ BGS, is related to IMF Bz as Δ BGS (nT)= -2.8 + 2.3 Bz (nT). This work is supported by NASA Living with a Star Grant NAG5-10883 and DARA grant 50 OC 8911 0.

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