Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm51d..04m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM51D-04
Physics
2437 Ionospheric Dynamics, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2753 Numerical Modeling, 2760 Plasma Convection
Scientific paper
Recent global ionospheric observations have made much progress in understanding the details of how ionospheric flows reconfigure themselves in response to rapid changes in IMF direction. It is now clear that the initial onset of ionospheric flows in response to these changes occurs at all local times within 1-2 minutes of the first detectable response. Additionally, the total time, after the onset, required to transition from a pre-existing global convection state to a new one is found to be a function of local time. These ionospheric flows and associated timescales are an indication of how the magnetospheric system as a whole adjusts itself to a new convective state. We first compare the observed changes in ionospheric flows to those found in a global MHD simulation. Good agreement is found for the reconfiguration timescales. We then investigate the associated magnetospheric flows using the output from the model. We find that the observed timescales of the ionospheric flows are simply a reflection of the magnetospheric timescales involved: The prompt initial response of 1-2 minutes appears to be the timescale for fast mode wave propagation across the magnetospheric system and the subsequent time to transition to the new state is the time necessary to develop the required magnetospheric flows. We find that these magnetospheric flows and their development lead the modeled ionospheric flows by a few minutes, suggesting that the magnetospheric flows are established first and then communicated along magnetic field lines to the ionosphere.
Fedder Joel A.
Hughes Jeffrey W.
Murr David Lee
Slinker Steven P.
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