Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006jgra..11111s05p&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 111, Issue A11, CiteID A11S05
Physics
Plasma Physics
9
Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431), Space Plasma Physics: Plasma Energization, Space Weather: Models, Ionosphere: Solar Radiation And Cosmic Ray Effects, Space Plasma Physics: Wave/Particle Interactions (2483, 6984)
Scientific paper
We report on the characteristic energy, intensity, and flow rate of escaping ionospheric ions as a function of solar illumination. The data presented here were acquired with the Toroidal Ion Mass-Angle Spectrograph (TIMAS) instrument on the Polar satellite at altitudes of 6000 to 9000 km, during solar minimum. To obtain uniform coverage under various solar illumination conditions, data were restricted to geomagnetically quiet intervals when the Dst index was above -50 nT. We explicitly report data for four magnetic local time ranges. Our investigation confirms many of the characteristics of ion outflows deduced from earlier episodic studies and identifies an anticorrelation in the dependence of beam and conic fluxes on solar illumination, which we attribute to variations in the altitude at which auroral acceleration processes occur. We find that the cusp is an important but not dominant source of ionospheric plasma for the magnetosphere. We conclude that significantly different plasma energization and/or transport mechanisms are dominant in the cusp and the midnight sectors. In addition, we conclude that variations in the solar EUV and geomagnetic energy inputs into the ionosphere, rather than the longer timescale seasonal and annual variations in solar illumination, determine the global rates of H+ and O+ outflow. The data presented here provide comprehensive and realistic boundary conditions for large-scale magnetospheric models during nonstorm times.
Collin Henry L.
Lennartsson O. W.
Peterson William K.
Yau Andrew W.
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