Region 2 field-aligned currents and earthward penetration of the electron and ion plasma sheet obtained from RCM simulations with a modified Dungey magnetic field solver, and comparison with observations in ionosphere and magnetosphere

Details Region 2 field-aligned currents and earthward penetration of the electron and ion plasma sheet obtained from RCM simulations with a modified Dungey magnetic field solver, and comparison with observations in ionosphere and magnetosphere Region 2 field-aligned currents and earthward penetration of the electron and ion plasma sheet obtained from RCM simulations with a modified Dungey magnetic field solver, and comparison with observations in ionosphere and magnetosphere

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm52a..07g&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM52A-07

Physics

[2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, [2760] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Convection, [2764] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Sheet

Scientific paper

Ionospheric conductivity and field aligned currents (FAC) are two of the most important factors that control the magnetosphere - ionosphere (M-I) coupling. The relative location between conductivity and FAC strongly affect the spatial distribution of convection electric field, including the Harang reversal and Sub-Auroral Polarization Streams that are crucial to development of substorms and storms. The night-side conductivity strongly depends on electron precipitation, and thus the electron plasma sheet and precipitation rate. On the other hand, Region 2 (R2) FAC are associated with pressure gradients in the near-Earth magnetosphere built up by plasma sheet ions. To understand this aspect of M-I coupling, we have run simulations with the Rice Convection Model (RCM), integrated with a modified Dungey magnetic field solver for equatorial force balance, to investigate the earthward penetration of plasma sheet protons and electrons of different energies into the near-Earth magnetosphere under weak and enhanced convection. We have investigated in our simulations how different precipitation rate affects the relative locations of conductivity and FAC and the resulting M-I coupling. We evaluate these simulation results by comparing the plasma sheet ions and electrons and their relative earthward edges with in situ THEMIS statistical results, and by comparing the simulated precipitating electron energy fluxes, different ion and electron equatorward precipitation boundaries, as well as their locations relative to R2 FAC in ionosphere, with previous published statistical DMSP studies [Newell et al., 2009; Ohtani et al., 2010].

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