Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources

Details Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources

Jan 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001ssrv...95..555m&link_type=abstract

Space Science Reviews, v. 95, Issue 1/2, p. 555-568 (2001).

Other

9

Scientific paper

The discovery of terrestrial O^+ and other heavy ions in magnetospheric hot plasmas, combined with the association of energetic ionospheric outflows with geomagnetic activity, led to the conclusion that increasing geomagnetic activity is responsible for filling the magnetosphere with ionospheric plasma. Recently it has been discovered that a major source of ionospheric heavy ion plasma outflow is responsive to the earliest impact of coronal mass ejecta upon the dayside ionosphere. Thus a large increase in ionospheric outflows begins promptly during the initial phase of geomagnetic storms, and is already present during the main phase development of such storms. We hypothesize that enhancement of the internal source of plasma actually supports the transition from substorm enhancements of aurora to storm-time ring current development in the inner magnetosphere. Other planets known to have ring current-like plasmas also have substantial internal sources of plasma, notably Jupiter and Saturn. One planet having a small magnetosphere, but very little internal source of plasma, is Mercury. Observations suggest that Mercury has substorms, but are ambiguous with regard to the possibility of magnetic storms of the planet. The Messenger mission to Mercury should provide an interesting test of our hypothesis. Mercury should support at most a modest ring current if its internal plasma source is as small as is currently believed. If substantiated, this hypothesis would support a general conclusion that the magnetospheric inflationary response is a characteristic of magnetospheres with substantial internal plasma sources. We quantitatively define this hypothesis and pose it as a problem in comparative magnetospheres.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources 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 Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-905601