High-latitude magnetospheric plasma convection and its dependence on solar wind parameters: Statistical analysis of Cluster EDI measurements

Details High-latitude magnetospheric plasma convection and its dependence on solar wind parameters: Statistical analysis of Cluster EDI measurements High-latitude magnetospheric plasma convection and its dependence on solar wind parameters: Statistical analysis of Cluster EDI measurements

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm53a1452f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM53A-1452

Physics

2411 Electric Fields (2712), 2475 Polar Cap Ionosphere, 2712 Electric Fields (2411), 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 6939 Magnetospheric Physics (2700)

Scientific paper

We have used vector measurements of the electron drift velocity by the Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) on Cluster between February 2001 and March 2006 to derive statistical maps of the high-latitude plasma convection. The EDI measurements, obtained at geocentric distances between ~4 and ~20RE over both hemispheres, are mapped into the polar ionosphere, and sorted according to the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), as measured at ACE and propagated to Earth, using best estimates of the orientation of the IMF variations. Only intervals of stable IMF are used, based on the magnitude of the so- called bias-vector constructed from 30-minute averages. Contour maps of the electric potential in the polar ionosphere are subsequently derived from the mapped and averaged ionospheric drift vectors. Comparison with published statistical results based on Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) radar and low-altitude satellite measurements shows excellent agreement between the average convection patterns, particularly the lack of mirror-symmetry between the effects of positive and negative IMF B_y effects, the appearance of a duskward flow component for strongly southward IMF, and the general weakening of the flows and potentials for northerly IMF directions. This agreement lends credence to the validity of the assumption underlying the mapping of the EDI data, namely that magnetic field lines are equipotentials. For strongly northward IMF the mapped EDI data show the clear emergence of two counter-rotating lobe cells with a channel of sunward flow between them. The total potential drops across the polar caps obtained from the mapped EDI data are intermediate between the radar and the low-altitude satellite results. We have also sorted the data according to estimates of the reconnection electric field, solar wind dynamic pressure, and disturbance parameters such as DsT and ASYM-H. Finally, we have produced maps of the variances of the convection as a function of the IMF orientation.

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