Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997jgr...102.7151s&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 102, Issue A4, p. 7151-7158
Physics
20
Ionosphere: Particle Precipitation, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, Magnetospheric Physics: Polar Cap Phenomena, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
The occurrence of bright (>0.0016ergscm-2s-1sr-1) polar rain is found to be determined by interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. An automated search of 11 years of DMSP particle precipitation data (1984-1994) was used to identify polar rain. Comparison was made with 30-min segments of appropriately lagged 15-s IMP 8 magnetic field data. Bright polar rain away from the dayside merging line occurred almost exclusively under conditions favorable for rapid merging (Bz<0 or |By|>2.5|Bz|). This implies that it occurs only on recently merged field lines and that during northward IMF open field lines have a distinctly different character, threading the magnetopause much further downtail than during southward IMF. The magnitude of this result was found to depend crucially on the distance from the Earth-Sun line of the IMF monitor, suggesting that unless the monitor is restricted to being within ~10RE of the Earth-Sun line, statistical correlations with IMF are likely to suffer contamination from roughly one in five events.
Meng Ching I.
Newell Patrick T.
Sotirelis Thomas
No associations
LandOfFree
Polar rain as a diagnostic of recent rapid dayside merging 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 Polar rain as a diagnostic of recent rapid dayside merging, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Polar rain as a diagnostic of recent rapid dayside merging will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1319257