Physics
Scientific paper
May 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994jgr....99.8513s&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol 99, no. A5, p. 8513-8529
Physics
28
Birkeland Currents, Earth Magnetosphere, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Magnetic Field Reconnection, Magnetic Flux, Polar Cusps, Solar Terrestrial Interactions, Solar Wind, Data Reduction, Geosynchronous Orbits, Magnetopause
Scientific paper
The rate of merging and the strength of the region 1 Birkeland currents increase during periods of southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Fringe fields of the Birkeland currents depress dayside magnetospheric magnetic field strengths and remove magnetic flux from the dayside magnetophere, thereby allowing the dayside magnetopause to move inward and the cusp equatorward. We use previously derived fits to the magnetospause location as a function of IMF B(sub z), the condition of pressure balance at the magnetopause, and an idealized model of region 1 Birkeland currents to estimate that strong southward IMF turnings will produce approximately 13- to 26-nT depressions in the geosynchronous magnetic field strength over periods of 30-60 min. We then present three case studies of geosynchronous magnetic field strength variations during periods of nearly constant solar wind dynamic pressure and southward IMF. The dayside magnetospheric magnetic field strength was depressed approximately 10 nT during a period of strongly southward IMF (B(sub z) = -6 nT), but only approximately 5 nT during two more typical periods of slightly southward IMF (B(sub z) = -2 to -3 nT). The depressions correspond to periods of enhanced AL index, which we interpret as evidence for directly driven solar wind-magnetosphere interaction rather than the unloading of energy stored within the magnetotail. Dayside geosynchronous magnetic field strengths are weakly correlated with IMF B(sub z).
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