The Discontinuous IMF-Dependent Entry of Solar Wind Ions into the Magnetosphere

Details The Discontinuous IMF-Dependent Entry of Solar Wind Ions into the Magnetosphere The Discontinuous IMF-Dependent Entry of Solar Wind Ions into the Magnetosphere

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsm12b..09p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SM12B-09

Physics

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

Scientific paper

We have investigated the entry of solar wind ions into the magnetosphere by tracing particle orbits in time-dependent electric and magnetic fields obtained from a three-dimensional global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the magnetosphere. The MHD simulation begins with a 2-hour period of northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The IMF then rotates by 45o every two hours. The final four hours of the simulation has southward IMF. Ions were launched in the solar wind at time intervals corresponding to the midpoint of each IMF interval and collected after crossing the magnetopause current layer. We found that the region of the upstream solar wind that mapped to the magnetopause entry regions was parallel to the y - z orientation of the IMF. Moreover, ions generally entered into the magnetosphere through the cusps and through the reconnection regions for that IMF orientation. In the cases with a finite IMF By, the cusp entry region was stretched toward lower latitudes and had a larger longitudinal extent than the northward or southward IMF cases and showed similarities to the "double cusp" feature observed by the DMSP spacecraft. The characteristics of ion entry for each IMF orientation as well as the acceleration of ions in the cusp and reconnection entry regions will be compared and analyzed.

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