A Tail Current Dominated Storm Main Phase: March 31, 2001

Details A Tail Current Dominated Storm Main Phase: March 31, 2001 A Tail Current Dominated Storm Main Phase: March 31, 2001

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm41c..02s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM41C-02

Physics

2708 Current Systems (2409), 2720 Energetic Particles, Trapped, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2778 Ring Current, 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

On March 31, 2001, a strong shock driven by a coronal mass ejection was observed by ACE in the solar wind at ~0030 UT. This solar wind transient produced a large geomagnetic storm at Earth, with a drop in the Dst index to -350 nT between 03 and 08 UT. The Earth's magnetosphere was very compressed during this interval, with the bow shock crossing the Los Alamos satellites at geosynchronous orbit. Tail currents rather than ring currents dominated the geomagnetic disturbances during the main phase of this storm. Here we present both space-based and ground-based observations demonstrating the dominant contribution of tail currents to the Dst index. Energetic neutral atom (ENA) images from the MENA and HENA instruments on IMAGE show a very narrow ENA distribution confined to the nightside until ~0630 UT, when Dst was -300 nT. Not until ~07 UT did the ENA images (>50 keV) indicate formation of a closed ring current as ions drifted to the dayside. This drift was associated with a dipolarization of the geomagnetic field, and a later ( ~08 UT) northward turning of the IMF and subsequent turnoff of the magnetospheric convection electric field. IMAGE/EUV observations at this time show the disappearance of the plasmasphere from the nightside as Dst drops, suggesting deep penetration of the plasma sheet. Geosynchronous observations from the Los Alamos satellites show a very dense plasma sheet (up to 10 cm-3) with strong convection. GOES magnetometer data show a very stretched and intense geomagnetic field, consistent with a strong tail current. Ground magnetometer observations confirm that the disturbance was localized to the nightside and that tail contributions dominated the disturbance until ~07 UT.

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