Open AccessSolar wind influence on the oxygen content of ion outflow in the high‐altitude polar cap during solar minimum conditions
Author(s) -
Elliott H. A.,
Comfort R. H.,
Craven P. D.,
Chandler M. O.,
Moore T. E.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2000ja003022
Subject(s) - solar wind , physics , atmospheric sciences , polar wind , interplanetary magnetic field , polar , dynamic pressure , solar minimum , flux (metallurgy) , altitude (triangle) , plasma , solar cycle , chemistry , astronomy , geometry , mechanics , mathematics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
We correlate solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) properties with the properties of O+ and H+ during early 1996 (solar minimum) at altitudes between 5.5 and 8.9 R E geocentric using the Thermal Ion Dynamics Experiment (TIDE) on the Polar satellite. Throughout the high‐altitude polar cap we observe H+ to be more abundant than O+. O+ is found to be more abundant at lower latitudes when the solar wind speed is low (and Kp is low), while at higher solar wind speeds (and high Kp ), O+ is observed across most of the polar cap. The O+ density and parallel flux are well organized by solar wind dynamic pressure, both increasing with solar wind dynamic pressure. Both the O+ density and parallel flux have positive correlations with both V sw B IMF and E sw . No correlation is found between O+ density and IMF Bz , although a nonlinear relationship with IMF By is observed, possibly due to a strong linear correlation with the dynamic pressure. H+ is not as highly correlated with solar wind and IMF parameters, although H+ density and parallel flux are negatively correlated with IMF By and positively correlated with both V sw B IMF and E sw . In this solar minimum data set, H+ is dominant, so that contributions of this plasma to the plasma sheet would have very low O+ to H+ ratios.