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Effects of geographic‐geomagnetic pole offset on ionospheric outflow: Can the ionosphere wag the magnetospheric tail?
Author(s) -
Barakat Abdallah R.,
Eccles J. Vincent,
Schunk Robert W.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl065736
Subject(s) - substorm , ionosphere , outflow , earth's magnetic field , atmospheric sciences , physics , geophysics , northern hemisphere , magnetosphere , oscillation (cell signaling) , polar , solar wind , geology , meteorology , magnetic field , astronomy , quantum mechanics , biology , genetics
The generalized polar wind model was used to simulate the polar ionosphere during the September/October 2002 storm. The solar terminator moved across the polar caps in a diurnal oscillation during this equinox period. The main conclusions of this study are the following: (1) the terminator oscillation generates a diurnal oscillation in the total hemispheric fluxes of the polar wind from the ionosphere into the magnetosphere; (2) the diurnal oscillation of outflow in the Northern Hemisphere is 12 h out of phase with the Southern Hemisphere; (3) the H + outflow flux is near its limiting value, so the oscillation is larger than the nonperiodic contributions (e.g., geomagnetic activity); and (4) the O + flux is less than its limiting value, hence the diurnal oscillation is comparable to the non‐periodic effects. The simulation suggests that the hemispherical asymmetry and periodicity of the total ion outflow could “wag the magnetospheric tail” and perhaps contribute to substorm triggering.