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Survey of plasma parameters in Earth's distant magnetotail with the Geotail spacecraft
Author(s) -
Paterson W. R.,
Frank L. A.
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/94gl02105
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , plasma sheet , plasma , physics , ion , ionosphere , atomic physics , geophysics , magnetosphere , magnetopause , quantum mechanics
The three‐dimensional velocity distributions for both electrons and positive ions as determined with plasma instrumentation on board the Geotail spacecraft are used to compute number densities, ion bulk velocities, and electron and ion temperatures. We present a statistical survey of these plasma parameters for the magnetotail at distances from Earth in the range of 10 to 210 R E for the period 19 October 1992 through 10 July 1993. The ion temperature is used to discriminate “hot” plasmas from “cold” plasmas. The hot ion plasmas are frequently found to stream either towards or away from Earth and we identify these with the plasma sheet, plasma sheet boundary layer, and regions of acceleration. The cold ion plasmas are typically streaming away from Earth. These cold plasmas appear to be associated with the plasma mantle, the magnetosheath, and boundary layers interior to the magnetosheath, although the contribution from the ionosphere has not yet been evaluated.