Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufmsm11c..06s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SM11C-06
Physics
2463 Plasma Convection (2760), 2721 Field-Aligned Currents And Current Systems (2409), 2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431), 2790 Substorms
Scientific paper
Combined measurements of polar cap boundary and ionospheric convection have been used to calculate merging rate at the Earth's night-side magnetopause. The algorithm that quantifies merging rate combines the location, orientation and rate of displacement of the polar cap boundary, identified from all-sky images, with high latitude plasma convection determined with incoherent scatter radars. The algorithm was applied to 46 night-side intervals in the winter seasons between 1999 and 2005, totaling 1966 individual measurements of reconnection under diverse geomagnetic conditions. It is found that the median reconnection rate (MErec) increases with increasing strength of the VBz driver, from 11.8 mV/m for VBz > 0 mV/m to 35.2 mV/m for -8 mV/m < VBz < - 4 mV/m. However, the standard deviation of the distribution (SErec), does not show an appreciable change relative to the strength of the driver, staying at a value of ~29 mV/m. Therefore, the variability of the reconnection rate, measured as SErec/MErec, is three times higher for a weakly driven magnetosphere than it is for a strongly driven magnetosphere. The median reconnection rate also increases with increasing solar wind ram pressure, from 15.3 mV/m for Psw < 2 nPa, to 27.4 mV/m for Psw > 4 nPa, and the standard deviation does not have an appreciable change (30.1 mV/m for the lowest pressure to 29.8 mV/m for the highest pressure). Several periods of extended southward IMF were observed, some of them consisting of Steady Magnetospheric Convection (SMC). The latter cases occurred for a weak and relatively stable driver (MVBz ~ -1.1 mV/m, SVBz ~ 0.5 mV/m) and for low and stable solar wind ram pressure (MPsw ~ 1.9 nPa, SPsw ~ 0.5 nPa). In those cases the variability in the reconnection rate is approximately twice as high as the median rate (MErec ~ -14.9 mV/m, SErec ~ 31.7 mV/m). Periods of a strong steady VBz driver (MVBz -3.1 mV/m, SVBz 1.5 mV/m and MPsw 2.6 nPa, SPsw 1.2 nPa) show a comparatively less variable reconnection rate (MErec -20.9 mV/m, SErec 25.1 mV/m). A stepwise increase in solar wind ram pressure was observed during the main phase of a storm. It produced a rapid poleward excursion of the polar cap boundary, as previously reported for this type of forcing, but the concomitant increase in reconnection rate occurred during the relaxation of the polar cap boundary to its original state, not during its expansion.
Doe Richard A.
Sanchez Ennio R.
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