Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm11a1549s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM11A-1549
Physics
Plasma Physics
[7807] Space Plasma Physics / Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration, [7827] Space Plasma Physics / Kinetic And Mhd Theory, [7845] Space Plasma Physics / Particle Acceleration, [7859] Space Plasma Physics / Transport Processes
Scientific paper
Inner magnetospheric convection, driven ultimately by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth's magnetosphere, sets up a system of region-2 field-aligned currents via pressure gradients. In regions of upward field-aligned currents, the physics of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling dictates presence of field-aligned potential drops that act to accelerate energetic electrons precipitating into the upper atmosphere. Although it is assumed that this phenomenon is important inside the region of discrete aurora, in fact some of the upward currents associated with the westward-travelling substorm current wedge are found deeper in the magnetosphere, in the region normally characterized by the diffuse aurora. The Rice Convection Model (RCM) treats plasma drifts, electric fields, and field-aligned currents in the inner magnetosphere self-consistently in the slow flow approximation under the assumption of isotropic pitch-angle distribution. The RCM can trace plasma distribution during geomagnetic active times by applying time dependent boundary conditions with an optional depleted channel around midnight on the RCM high latitude boundary. We present a generalized version of the Knight relation that takes into account the non-Maxwellian nature of particle population carrying the field-aligned currents and discuss the implementation of this modified relation into the RCM. We use event simulations to evaluate the role of parallel electric field on the ring current, the field-aligned currents, and the auroral and ionospheric-current signatures of the substorm current wedge.
Sazykin Stanislav
Song Yushu
Toffoletto Frank
Wolf Robert
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