Comparative modeling of the magnetotail ion population for northward and southward IMF orientations

Details Comparative modeling of the magnetotail ion population for northward and southward IMF orientations Comparative modeling of the magnetotail ion population for northward and southward IMF orientations

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsm21b0202z&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SM21B-0202

Physics

2744 Magnetotail, 2760 Plasma Convection, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

We have investigated the mechanisms by which solar wind ions enter the magnetosphere and populate the magnetotail for northward and southward orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). We have done so by tracing particle orbits in time-dependent electric and magnetic fields obtained from a three-dimensional global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the magnetosphere which includes both IMF orientations. We found that during northward IMF, solar wind ion entry occurs predominantly through the high-latitude reconnection regions and the dawn side low-latitude boundary layer. Some ions accelerated in the reconnection regions gain access to the plasma sheet at large downtail distances. The population of the plasma sheet for southward IMF is complicated by the dynamic nature of the plasma sheet for this IMF orientation. During this time, the MHD simulation contains an X-line at x ˜ -25 RE downtail. Because of this, the bulk of the plasma mantle finds itself accessing the plasma sheet tailward of the x-line and is lost down the tail. As expected, the plasma mantle is much more robust in particle content and in spatial extent for southward IMF compared to northward IMF. A new feature, however, is the population of the near-Earth (earthward of the x-line) plasma sheet by solar wind ions that are slowed down during their crossing of the magnetopause. Because of their small tailward drift speed, these ions are convected into the near-Earth plasma sheet where they are nonadiabatically accelerated up to tens of keV in energy.

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