Inner magnetospheric plasma pressure distribution and its local time asymmetry

Details Inner magnetospheric plasma pressure distribution and its local time asymmetry Inner magnetospheric plasma pressure distribution and its local time asymmetry

Aug 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003georl..30pssc1l&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 30, Issue 16, pp. SSC 1-1, CiteID 1846, DOI 10.1029/2003GL017596

Physics

20

Magnetospheric Physics: Storms And Substorms, Magnetospheric Physics: Ring Current, Magnetospheric Physics: Plasma Convection, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere-Inner

Scientific paper

Distribution of plasma pressure in the inner magnetosphere for protons and oxygen ions is constructed using measurements from two particle instruments on AMPTE/CCE covering an energy range of ~1 keV to 4 MeV. Data within the L shells from 2 to 9 in the equatorial region are sorted into low and high activity levels based on the Kp index. It is found that (1) the pressure peak of protons, the dominant contributor to the total plasma pressure typically, occurs at a lower L shell than that of oxygen ions at all local times, (2) proton pressure is generally higher in the dusk-midnight sector than in the post-midnight sector during high Kp, a feature reinforced by the expected local time asymmetry in the magnetic field strength, and (3) a minimum magnetic field region seems to exist at L ~ 8 in the night sector during high Kp but is apparently absent during low Kp. These results suggest that the plasma pressure peak lies in the dusk-midnight sector during active periods, in contrast to the plasma pressure distribution inferred from energetic neutral atom observations during active times. Possible resolutions to this apparent discrepancy are suggested. This study also indicates that within L ~ 9 a minimum magnetic field region does not develop during low Kp but appears at high Kp.

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