Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsa21a..07f&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SA21A-07
Physics
2411 Electric Fields (2712), 2415 Equatorial Ionosphere, 2435 Ionospheric Disturbances, 2443 Midlatitude Ionosphere, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
During the early active phase of a geomagnetic storm, enhanced cross-tail electric fields drive plasmasheet particles earthward. There is little shielding in place at the time, and associated electric fields penetrate deep into the inner magnetosphere. Penetrating eastward electric fields are observed at mid and low latitudes [Foster and Rich, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 26367, 1998] producing an uplifting of the F region plasma. This redistributes equatorial ionospheric plasma to higher-latitude flux tubes within the plasmasphere, resulting in the poleward displacement of the equatorial anomalies and enhanced levels of TEC (total electron content) on flux tubes near the plasmapause. A region of polarization electric field forms at sub-auroral latitudes in the pre-midnight sector, where the storm-enhanced ring current particle populations abut the outer regions of the plasmasphere. The polarization jet electric field is strongest near 22 MLT where it abuts and overlaps the high-density, high-TEC region of the enhanced outer plasmasphere. As a result, the outer plasmasphere is stripped away and advected rapidly sunward. This plasma is seen at synchronous orbit as plasmaspheric tails or drainage plumes [Su et al., Geophys. Res. Lett, 28, 111, 2001]. In the low-altitude ionosphere, this process is evidenced by the appearance of sunward-convecting regions of enhanced plasma density at mid latitudes, termed storm-enhanced density (SED) [Foster, J.Geophys. Res., 98,1675, 1993]. SED is the ionospheric signature of the erosion of the outer plasmasphere by ring current-induced disturbance electric fields. Extreme spatial and temporal variability in TEC and electric field strength are associated with these processes and lead to severe space weather effects at mid and low latitudes during large storms. The Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar is well situated to observe stormtime perturbations of the mid-latitude ionosphere. Radar, ground-based GPS, and DMSP satellite observations are combined to investigate the causes and characteristics of the sub-auroral stormtime ionospheric perturbations.
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