The interplanetary electric field, cleft currents and plasma convection in the polar caps

Details The interplanetary electric field, cleft currents and plasma convection in the polar caps The interplanetary electric field, cleft currents and plasma convection in the polar caps

Dec 1984

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1984p%26ss...32.1551b&link_type=abstract

Planetary and Space Science (ISSN 0032-0633), vol. 32, Dec. 1984, p. 1551-1557.

Computer Science

34

Convective Flow, Electric Fields, Interplanetary Medium, Magnetohydrodynamic Flow, Polar Caps, Space Plasmas, Electric Potential, Electrodynamics, Field Aligned Currents, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Solar Wind

Scientific paper

The relationship between the pattern of plasma convection in the polar cleft and the dynamics of the interplanetary electric field (IEF) is examined theoretically. It is shown that owing to the geometrical properties of the magnetosphere, the East-West component of the IEF will drive field-aligned currents which connect to the ionosphere at points lying on either side of noon, while currents associated with the North-South component of the IEF will connect the two polar caps as sheet currents, also centered at 12 MLT. In order to describe the consequences of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) effects upon high-latitude electric fields and convection patterns, a series of numerical simulations was carried out. The simulations were based on a solution to the steady-state equation of current continuity in a height-integrated ionospheric current. The simulations demonstrate that a simple hydrodynamical model can account for the narrow 'throats' of strong dayside antisunward convection observed during periods of southward interplanetary IMF drift, as well as the sunward convection observed during periods of strongly northward IMF drift.

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