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Saturation of polar cap potential by intense solar wind electric fields
Author(s) -
Nagatsuma Tsutomu
Publication year - 2002
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 - 10.1029/2001gl014202
Subject(s) - solar wind , interplanetary magnetic field , polar , magnetosphere , polar cap , ionosphere , electric field , interplanetary spaceflight , physics , saturation (graph theory) , geophysics , atmospheric sciences , computational physics , environmental science , magnetic field , astronomy , mathematics , quantum mechanics , combinatorics
We have examined the statistical relationship between solar wind parameters and the polar cap potential (Φ PC ) using data from the Wind and ACE satellites and the northern polar cap index (PCN) as a proxy for Φ PC . We found that PCN tended to be saturated when the value of the merging electric field (E m ) was high (greater than 5 mV/m). Furthermore, it was found that the degree of saturation does not depend on the intensity of the interplanetary magnetic field but depends on the value of E m . These results are in quite reasonable agreement with the predictions of the model of Hill et al. [1976]. This fact suggests that the development of magnetospheric convection is not controlled by the efficiency of the dayside merging process itself but is controlled by the coupling among the solar wind, the magnetosphere, and the ionosphere.