By What Process Is Ion Outflow Driven?

Details By What Process Is Ion Outflow Driven? By What Process Is Ion Outflow Driven?

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sm52d05e&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SM52D-05

Physics

2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2776 Polar Cap Phenomena, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

We examine ionospheric outflows in the high altitude magnetospheric polar cap during the POLAR satellite's apogee on April 19, 1996, using data from the Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment (TIDE) instrument. Elevated levels of O+ observed in this pass may be due to the geophysical conditions during and prior to the apogee pass. We observe relationships between the density, velocity, and temperature which appear to be associated with perpendicular heating and the mirror force, rather than adiabatic expansion. The polar cap Poynting flux along the magnetic field direction correlates well with the H+ temperature. The H+ outflow is at a fairly constant flux which is consistent with being source limited by charge exchange at low altitudes. Local centrifugal acceleration in the polar cap does not account for the main variations we observe in the outflow velocity. The solar wind speed is high during this pass ( ~700 km/s), and there are Alfvén waves present in the solar wind such that the solar wind speed and IMF Bx are correlated. A distinguishing feature of this pass is that both the H+ and O+ outflow velocities correlate with both the solar wind speed and IMF fluctuations. POLAR MFE data shows variations similar to those observed in the solar wind and polar cap ion outflow. We examine the question of whether or not the relationships between the solar wind, ion outflow, and polar cap magnetometer fluctuations indicate that the ion outflow can be directly driven by the solar wind. The field-aligned currents could be related to the ion outflow through heating/wave particle heating, by the formation of field-aligned potential drops, or both. We show features in this data that are consistent with perpendicular heating having occurred at lower altitudes and then converted into bulk outflow energy as the ions move up the field line as well as aspects suggesting the presence of a field-aligned potential drop at high altitude.

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