Field-aligned current systems in the magnetospheric ground state

Details Field-aligned current systems in the magnetospheric ground state Field-aligned current systems in the magnetospheric ground state

Apr 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998jgr...103.6853w&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 103, Issue A4, p. 6853-6870

Physics

12

Magnetospheric Physics: Current Systems, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, Magnetospheric Physics: Polar Cap Phenomena, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Using magnetic field or particle data obtained by the Magsat, DMSP-F6, and DMSP-F7 satellites, we have investigated characteristics of the magnetospheric plasma environment and field-aligned currents (FACs) during prolonged geomagnetic quiescence (Kp=0) associated with extremely low values of the interplanetary magnetic field (|By|<=1.5nT,-0.5nT<=Bz<=1.5nT). We refer to this as the ``ground state'' of the magnetosphere. The large-scale FACs exhibit the traditional region 1/region 2 current pattern and the dayside region 0 (traditional cusp) current system. The median region 1 current intensity at 835-km altitude is 135 nT (with half of the values contained in the range 126-156 nT) in the 0800-1600 magnetic local time (MLT) region excluding the cusp. These are much smaller than the region 1 peak intensities of 740 nT for the |AL|>=100nT case and 350 nT for the |AL|<100nT case as statistically determined by Iijima and Potemra [1978]. In addition, the region 1/region 2 FAC systems tend to degenerate into smaller-scale FACs at local times separated from the dayside toward morning and evening hours. The median region 1 intensity is 70 nT (with one-half the values between 52 and 96 nT) in the 2200-0200 MLT sector. In the prenoon and postnoon sectors, region 0 currents with intensities comparable to region 1 continue to be paired with region 1 currents. The region 0 and region 1 currents on the dayside extend in the azimuthal direction, are balanced in current intensity with a typical value of 140 nT in the 0915-1000 MLT sector, and are collocated with boundary layer particles. These observations have provided the first opportunity to study the basic flow patterns of field-aligned currents during the magnetospheric ground state.

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