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A new plasma regime in the distant geomagnetic tail
Author(s) -
Hardy D. A.,
Hills H. K.,
Freeman J. W.
Publication year - 1975
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/gl002i005p00169
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , magnetopause , magnetosphere , plasma sheet , physics , plasma , earth's magnetic field , geophysics , flux (metallurgy) , computational physics , magnetic field , materials science , nuclear physics , metallurgy , quantum mechanics
The three Rice Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiments have detected an extensive region of low energy plasma flow antisunward along the ordered field lines in the lobes of the geomagnetic tail at lunar distances. This particle regime resembles the “boundary layer” and “plasma mantle” observed at smaller geocentric distances and an interior flow region parallel to the magnetopause in the dayside magnetosphere. It possesses plasma characteristics uniquely different from the plasma sheet and magnetosheath. Spatially the particle regime is found exterior to the plasma sheet across essentially the entire tail and adjacent to the magnetopause on both the dawn and dusk sides of the magnetosphere. The integral flux varies from 10 5 to 10 8 ions/cm² sec ster with the differential flux peak between 50 and 250 eV/q. Temperatures range from 4 × 10 4 to 5 × 10 5 °K and number densities from .1 to 5/cm³.