Physics
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusmsa51a..04l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2008, abstract #SA51A-04
Physics
2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2437 Ionospheric Dynamics, 2447 Modeling And Forecasting, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431), 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics
Scientific paper
Unraveling the causal relationships between ionospheric outflows and magnetosphere-ionosphere system dynamics is one of the great frontiers of geospace plasma science. We know that ionospheric ions follow two basic pathways in overcoming gravity to form an outflow: 1) as a polar wind sustained by ambipolar electric fields, and 2) via perpendicular energization followed by mirror-force lifting. However, the large-scale processes that causally regulate outflows remain poorly understood because they entail the coupled dynamics of the entire magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system. Consequently, our understanding of the effects of outflows on the coupled system is also incomplete. We find ionospheric ions in variable concentrations throughout Earth's magnetosphere, and evidence continues to accumulate that heavy ions, primarily O+, significantly influence ring current dynamics. Recent studies also suggest that changes in magnetospheric plasma composition attributed to plasma of ionospheric origin regulate the energization and loss of radiation belt particles, dayside and nightside reconnection, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at the magnetospheric boundary, and, ultimately, the global electrodynamics of the magnetosphere-ionosphere interaction. These processes, in turn, regulate the stirring of the ionosphere and thermosphere, electron precipitation and power flows into the ionosphere, and, therefore, the energization and outflow of ionospheric plasma and the state of the ionosphere.
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