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Control of plasmaspheric dynamics by both convection and sub‐auroral polarization stream
Author(s) -
Goldstein J.,
Sandel B. R.,
Hairston M. R.,
Reiff P. H.
Publication year - 2003
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 - 10.1029/2003gl018390
Subject(s) - plasmasphere , extreme ultraviolet lithography , physics , geophysics , substorm , magnetosphere , extreme ultraviolet , convection , astrophysics , polarization (electrochemistry) , computational physics , plasma , meteorology , optics , laser , quantum mechanics , chemistry
The long‐standing hypothesis that plasmaspheric dynamics are described by superposition of corotation and solar‐wind‐driven sunward convection is tested via direct comparison between plasmasphere observations and simulation output. The observations consist of global plasmasphere images produced by the IMAGE extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imager during plasmasphere erosion on 2 June 2001. The simulation is a plasmapause evolution model driven by a time‐varying Volland‐Stern (VS) electric potential distribution. On the dawnside and much of the nightside the model matches the EUV plasmapause position to within 0.2–0.5 earth radii ( R E ). Near dusk the model plasmapause is about 0.7–1.2 R E farther out than the EUV plasmapause, suggesting that an improved model should include the duskside flow enhancement known as the sub‐auroral polarization stream (SAPS). We demonstrate that including a simplified ad‐hoc SAPS potential can correct the model on the duskside.