Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm54b..08l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM54B-08
Physics
[2411] Ionosphere / Electric Fields, [2431] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions, [2704] Magnetospheric Physics / Auroral Phenomena, [2760] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Convection
Scientific paper
Both slowly varying large-scale structure and a variety of disturbances occur within the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system along nightside plasma sheet field lines, and both are reflected in the aurora. Much about this structure and these disturbances has remained poorly understood because of complicated magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling and limitations on capabilities for measuring and modeling the coupled system. However, this situation has started to dramatically change due to NSF deployments of new and expanded radar systems, the ground auroral imaging and multi-spacecraft of the NASA THEMIS program, and model development. Initial studies have suggested that much about the structure and disturbances may be describable and understood based on a slowly changing large-scale structure describable by Region 2 physics and its interplay with much more dynamic meso-scale structures associated with flow channels emanating from near the polar cap boundary. These new results also suggest a possible unifying view that many disturbances (substorms, PBIs, streamers, and perhaps others) may be all related to the meso-scale flow channels. If so, understanding the generation and propagation of the flow channels and their coupling with the large-scale background is critical for understanding disturbances, including their effects on and feedback from ionospheric and thermospheric structures. Also important will be to learn why only some PBIs (the most common disturbance) lead to streamers, why only some streamers lead to substorm onset within the near-Earth plasma sheet, and why some streamers lead to other disturbances. Possibilities include properties of the large-scale structure, into which a streamer penetrates, and of the plasma within the streamers
Angelopoulos Vassilis
Gkioulidou Matina
Heinselman Craig J.
Kim Hungsoo
Lyons Larry R.
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