Effects of the Southward Solar Wind Magnetic Field and Ionospheric Conductance on Cross Polar Cap Potential: Global MHD Simulation Results

Physics

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2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2753 Numerical Modeling, 2776 Polar Cap Phenomena, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

Recent observations of the cross polar cap potential for large values of the solar wind electric field Ey (with southward interplanetary-magnetic-field (IMF)) indicate saturation when the magnitude of the solar wind Ey exceeds approximately 5 mV/m [Russel et al., 2000; Lu et al., 2001; Kozyra et al., 2001; Shepherd et al., 2002]. We conducted a set of global MHD simulations using the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) code under different solar wind conditions. The ionospheric conductance was taken as constant Pedersen conductance given by 5 and 10 mhos. The global MHD simulations show that for strong solar wind IMF, the ionospheric cross polar cap potential saturates. With higher ionospheric conductance, the saturated value of the cross polar cap potential decreases. The saturation of the ionospheric potential for strong solar magnetic field is originated from the saturation of the electric field (Ey) at the dayside reconnection site. This electric field is what mapped into the ionosphere and dictates the polar cap potential. With the increase of the ionospheric conductance, the value of the saturated electric field at the dayside reconnection site drops. With higher solar wind southward IMF Bz, the magnetosheath region is significantly broadened and after passing the bow shock region, the electric field decreases rapidly before it encounters the reconnection region. The magnetosheath region accounts for diverting a large fraction of the impinging Poynting flux around the magnetosphere without impacting the magnetopause.

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