Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm43a1736m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM43A-1736
Physics
[2700] Magnetospheric Physics
Scientific paper
The goal of this investigation is to understand the formation of the plasma sheet, and why the observational data shows differences in the plasma energy distribution between the dawn and dusk flank. Understanding the formation of the plasma sheet is important because the plasma sheet is the main source of particles to the ring current and the radiation belts. These populations become enhanced during intervals of northward IMF. To carry out this study, we model a plasma sheet refilling after a northward turning of the IMF. The goal is to compute the phase space density of simulated particles by mapping forwards in time the phase space densities of plasma sheet ions obtained from the Geotail spacecraft. We have used northward IMF upstream solar wind conditions, corresponding with the upstream parameters used to bin the Geotail dataset, to drive the electric and magnetic field models in our Lorentz force particle tracer, which are used to trace ion trajectories. Our particle tracer uses a Tsyganenko magnetic field model and a Weimer electric potential model, and it assumes that there are no particle losses, so that according to Liouville’s Theorem the phase space density is constant along the generated particle trajectories. The initial and boundary conditions for the phase space mapping are based on Geotail data. We compare our simulated phase space densities with the corresponding Geotail data and discuss the differences between the simulations and the observations. Our results demonstrate one of the sources of the observed dawn-dusk asymmetry during times of northward IMF, which is asymmetric plasma transport in the magnetosphere.
Lemon Colby
Lyons Larry R.
Mata W. J.
Wang Chenjie
No associations
LandOfFree
Modeling the Evolution of Plasma Phase Space Density During a Period of Northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Modeling the Evolution of Plasma Phase Space Density During a Period of Northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Modeling the Evolution of Plasma Phase Space Density During a Period of Northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1880331