Observed Saturation of the Ionospheric Cross Polar Cap Potential During the 31 March 2001 Storm

Details Observed Saturation of the Ionospheric Cross Polar Cap Potential During the 31 March 2001 Storm Observed Saturation of the Ionospheric Cross Polar Cap Potential During the 31 March 2001 Storm

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm31b0776h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM31B-0776

Physics

2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2475 Polar Cap Ionosphere, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Theoretical arguments and MHD simulations have suggested that the potential drop across the polar-cap ionosphere should approach a constant limiting value when the IMF is large and southward. This idea has been difficult to test observationally because the conditions of large southward IMF, which are expected to produce the largest saturation effect, are extremely rare. Only a dozen cases where the potential drop exceeded 200 kV have been observed during the 14 years of continuous coverage in the DMSP satellite data, and for most of those cases the period of extreme IMF conditions was relatively short or no IMF data were available at all. However, during the 31 March 2001 storm there was a period of more than 4 hours (starting { ~} 13:45 UT) when the IMF was almost purely southward with a magnitude that varied slowly from -36 nT to -28 nT, followed by a 2-hour period of large positive values of By (up to +17 nT) while Bz remained between -28 and -20 nT. Fortunately this 6-hour interval occurred while the DMSP-F13 satellite was crossing the polar region almost directly along the dawn-dusk line and passing above 85 degrees magnetic latitude. Thus, during 7 polar passes of the satellite, the potential drops by DMSP-F13 were relatively steady and probably close to the true total cross polar cap potential drop. We will compare the observed potential drops with values predicted by a simple model of the saturation process. We will also discuss the systematic differences between the potential drops observed in the two hemispheres.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Observed Saturation of the Ionospheric Cross Polar Cap Potential During the 31 March 2001 Storm 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 Observed Saturation of the Ionospheric Cross Polar Cap Potential During the 31 March 2001 Storm, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Observed Saturation of the Ionospheric Cross Polar Cap Potential During the 31 March 2001 Storm will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1384305