Plasma transport in the magnetotail lobes
The Earth's magnetosphere is populated by particles originating from the solar wind and the terrestrial ionosphere. A substantial fraction of the plasma from these sources are convected through the magnetotail lobes. In this paper, we present a statistical study of convective plasma transpor...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2009-09-01
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| Series: | Annales Geophysicae |
| Online Access: | https://www.ann-geophys.net/27/3577/2009/angeo-27-3577-2009.pdf |
| Summary: | The Earth's magnetosphere is populated by particles originating from the solar wind
and the terrestrial ionosphere. A substantial fraction of the plasma from these sources are convected
through the magnetotail lobes. In this paper, we present a statistical
study of convective plasma transport through the Earth's magnetotail lobes for various geomagnetic conditions.
The results are based on a combination of density measurements from the Electric Field and Waves
Experiment (EFW) and convection velocities from the Electron Drift Instrument (EDI) on board the Cluster
spacecraft. The results show that variations in the plasma flow is primarily attributed to
changes in the convection velocity, whereas the plasma density remains fairly constant and shows little
correlation with geomagnetic activity. During disturbed conditions there is also an increased abundance
of heavier ions, which combined with enhanced convection, cause an accentuation of the mass flow.
The convective transport is much slower than the field aligned transport. A substantial amount of
plasma therefore escape downtail without ever reaching the central plasma sheet. |
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| ISSN: | 0992-7689 1432-0576 |