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Determination of the Earth's plasmapause location from the CE‐3 EUVC images
Author(s) -
He Fei,
Zhang XiaoXin,
Chen Bo,
Fok MeiChing,
Nakano Shinya
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2015ja021863
Subject(s) - plasmasphere , defense meteorological satellite program , van allen probes , equator , extreme ultraviolet lithography , geology , remote sensing , satellite , geophysics , physics , geodesy , latitude , van allen radiation belt , astronomy , ionosphere , magnetosphere , magnetic field , optics , quantum mechanics
The Moon‐based Extreme Ultraviolet Camera (EUVC) aboard China's Chang'e‐3 (CE‐3) mission has successfully imaged the entire Earth's plasmasphere for the first time from the side views on lunar surface. An EUVC image on 21 April 2014 is used in this study to demonstrate the characteristics and configurations of the Moon‐based EUV imaging and to illustrate the determination algorithm of the plasmapause locations on the magnetic equator. The plasmapause locations determined from all the available EUVC images with the Minimum L Algorithm are quantitatively compared with those extracted from in situ observations (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, and Radiation Belt Storm Probes). Excellent agreement between the determined plasmapauses seen by EUVC and the extracted ones from other satellites indicates the reliability of the Moon‐based EUVC images as well as the determination algorithm. This preliminary study provides an important basis for future investigation of the dynamics of the plasmasphere with the Moon‐based EUVC imaging.