Physics
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agusmsm41b..02t&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2002, abstract #SM41B-02
Physics
2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2768 Plasmasphere, 2772 Plasma Waves And Instabilities, 2778 Ring Current
Scientific paper
During episodes of enhanced magnetospheric convection, the outer layer of the plasmasphere finds itself on drift orbits that no longer close around the earth but rather extend sunward to the dayside magnetopause. This outer layer of dense, cold material thus erodes from the plasmasphere and forms a drainage plume (or "tail") extending sunward toward the magnetopause. This drainage plume is often seen in geosynchronous plasma measurements and has now been imaged directly by the EUV instrument on the IMAGE spacecraft. In the same region, ring current ions, with energies above 10 keV, follow drift orbits that are dominated by the gradient and curvature of the magnetic field and hence are largely orthogonal to the drainage plume. Thus, ring current ions will drift across such a plume, temporarily traversing a region of appreciably elevated cold plasma density, with an associated lowering of the resonant energy for interaction with ion cyclotron waves. Using measurements from the LANL MPA instruments on several geosynchronous satellites, we examine the intensities of the hot ions before and after they encounter a plume, seeking evidence for enhanced pitch-angle scattering losses during the plume transit. Such measurements would enable a quantitative assessment of the importance of the more general precipitation losses in the overlap region of the ring current and the plasmasphere.
Borovsky Joseph E.
Gary P.
Thomsen Michelle F.
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