Ring Current Dynamics

This chapter reviews the current understanding of ring current dynamics. The terrestrial ring current is an electric current flowing toroidally around the Earth, centered at the equatorial plane and at altitudes of ∼10,000 to 60,000 km. Enhancements in this current are responsible for global decreases in the Earth’s surface magnetic field, which have been used to define geomagnetic storms. Intense geospace magnetic storms have severe effects on technological systems, such as disturbances or even permanent damage of telecommunication and navigation satellites, telecommunication cables, and power grids. The main carriers of the ring current are positive ions, with energies from ∼1 keV to a few hundred keV, which are trapped by the geomagnetic field and undergo an azimuthal drift. The ring current is formed by the injection of ions originating in the solar wind and the terrestrial ionosphere into the inner magnetosphere. The injection process involves electric fields, associated with enhanced magnetospheric convection and/or magnetospheric substorms. The quiescent ring current is carried mainly by protons of predominantly solar wind origin, while active processes in geospace tend to increase the abundance (both absolute and relative) of O⁺ ions, which are of ionospheric origin. During intense geospace magnetic storms, the O⁺ abundance increases dramatically. This increase has been observed to occur concurrently with the rapid intensification of the ring current in the storm main phase and to result in O⁺ dominance around storm maximum. This compositional change can affect several dynamic processes, such as species-and energy-dependent charge-exchange and wave-particle scattering loss.     

Heavy ions in the magnetosphere

For purposes of this review heavy ions include all species of ions having a mass per unit charge of 2 AMU or greater. The discussion is limited primarily to ions in the energy range between 100 eV and 100 keV. Prior to the discovery in 1972 of large fluxes of energetic O⁺ ions precipitating into the auroral zone during geomagnetic storms, the only reported magnetosphere ion species observed in this energy range were helium and hydrogen. More recently O⁺ and He⁺ have been identified as significant components of the storm time ring current, suggesting that an ionosphere source may be involved in the generation of the fluxes responsible for this current. Mass spectrometer measurements on board the S3-3 satellite have shown that ionospheric ions in the auroral zone are frequently accelerated upward along geomagnetic field lines to several keV energy in the altitude region from 5000 km to greater than 8000 km. These observations also show evidence for acceleration perpendicular to the magnetic field and thus cannot be explained by a parallel electric field alone. This auroral acceleration region is most likely the source for the magnetospheric heavy ions of ionospheric origin, but further acceleration would probably be required to bring them to characteristic ring current energies. Recent observations from the GEOS-1 spacecraft combined with earlier results suggest comparable contributions to the hot magnetopheric plasma from the solar wind and the ionosphere.Proceedings of the Symposium on Solar Terrestrial Physics held in Innsbruck, May–June 1978.     

Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources

The discovery of terrestrial O⁺ and other heavy ions in magnetospheric hot plasmas, combined with the association of energetic ionospheric outflows with geomagnetic activity, led to the conclusion that increasing geomagnetic activity is responsible for filling the magnetosphere with ionospheric plasma. Recently it has been discovered that a major source of ionospheric heavy ion plasma outflow is responsive to the earliest impact of coronal mass ejecta upon the dayside ionosphere. Thus a large increase in ionospheric outflows begins promptly during the initial phase of geomagnetic storms, and is already present during the main phase development of such storms. We hypothesize that enhancement of the internal source of plasma actually supports the transition from substorm enhancements of aurora to storm-time ring current development in the inner magnetosphere. Other planets known to have ring current-like plasmas also have substantial internal sources of plasma, notably Jupiter and Saturn. One planet having a small magnetosphere, but very little internal source of plasma, is Mercury. Observations suggest that Mercury has substorms, but are ambiguous with regard to the possibility of magnetic storms of the planet. The Messenger mission to Mercury should provide an interesting test of our hypothesis. Mercury should support at most a modest ring current if its internal plasma source is as small as is currently believed. If substantiated, this hypothesis would support a general conclusion that the magnetospheric inflationary response is a characteristic of magnetospheres with substantial internal plasma sources. We quantitatively define this hypothesis and pose it as a problem in comparative magnetospheres.     

Temporal and Spatial Variation of the Ion Composition in the Ring Current

A global view of the ring current ions is presented using data acquired by the instrument MICS onboard the CRRES satellite during solar maximum. The variations of differential intensities, energy spectra, radial profile of the energetic particles and the origin of the magnetic local time (MLT) asymmetry of the ring current have been investigated in detail. O⁺ ions are an important contributor to the storm time ring current. Its abundance in terms of number density increases with increasing geomagnetic activity as well as its energy density. However, a saturation value for the energy density of O⁺ ions has been found. The low-energy H⁺ ions show a dramatic intensification and a rapid decay. However, its density ratio during the storm maximum is almost constant. On the other hand, high-energy H⁺ ions first exhibit a flux decrease followed by a delayed increase. Its density ratio shows an anti-correlation with the storm intensity. Both the positions of the maximum flux of O⁺ and He⁺ depend on storm activity: they move to lower altitudes in the early stage of a storm and move back to higher L-values during the recovery phase. Whereas the position of H⁺ and He⁺⁺ show almost no dependence on the Dst index. The energy density distributions in radial distance and magnetic local time show drastic differences for different ion species. It demonstrates that the ring current asymmetry mainly comes from oxygen and helium ions, but not from protons. The outward motion of O⁺ around local noon may have some implications for oxygen bursts in the magnetosheath during IMF Bz negative conditions as observed by GEOTAIL.     

Global imaging of O+ from IMAGE/HENA

The magnetospheric O⁺ population in the 52–180 keV range during storms is investigated through the analysis of energetic neutral atom (ENA) images. The images are obtained from the high energy neutral atom (HENA) imager onboard the IMAGE satellite. At each substorm onset following the commencement of a geomagnetic storm the oxygen ENA display ～30 min intense bursts. Only very weak corresponding features in the 60–119 keV hydrogen ENA can be occasionally seen. The dominating fraction of the oxygen ENA emissions are produced when O⁺ ions mirror/precipitate at low altitudes, where the number density of the neutral atmosphere is high. During the storm we observed several bursts of oxygen ENA, but it is still not clear how much the O⁺ content of the ring current increases during the storm main phase. Our observations suggest that the responsible injection mechanism is mass-dependent and scatters the pitch angles. This leads us to favor a non-adiabatic mechanism proposed by (Delcourt, 2002).     

Magnetic storms and associated phenomena

This review will not merely be a précis of the literature in this field though a partial survey is attempted. A critical stand will be taken and a point of view put forward. Experiments to test this point of view and others will be suggested. Several new ideas are introduced.Two broad conditions of the magnetosphere are discussed, the quiet and the disturbed. During the quiet condition, the polar cap F region either glows red or is filled with a family of red auroral arcs parallel roughly to L-contours. Auroras near the auroral zone have an increasing amount of green (5577) coloration. The ionospheric F region exists even in winter over the polar caps despite the absence of solar ionizing radiation or obvious corpuscular bombardment. The red polar glow and the maintenance of the quiet polar winter F region are suggested to be accounted for by the cooling of plasma in the geomagnetic tail. These phenomena consume less than 0.01 of the energy and flux of the solar wind impinging on the magnetosphere. The relevance of dynamo theory to this quiet condition is discussed.During the disturbed condition, many phenomena such as polar magnetic substorms, auroral substorms, the sudden appearance of islands of energetic particles in the magnetosphere, and the rapid acceleration of auroral particles appear to call for the operation of an instability deep in the magnetosphere.The energetics of various facets of geomagnetic disturbance are discussed, and joule dissipation of ionospheric current is found to be a major sink of energy during storms. This causes significant heating of the ionosphere particularly at the site of auroral electrojets. Corpuscular bombardment may consume as much energy, but its heating effect is likely to be less.The stable auroral red arc (SAR-arc) observed equatorwards of normal active aurora during magnetic storms is a major sink of energy of a magnetospheric ring current. It is contended that the ring current generally consists of particles of energy of less than a few keV. It is suggested that the ring current is caused by the irreversible pumping and energisation of plasma from the outer to the inner magnetosphere. This pumping is achieved by the random electrostatic fields associated with the noisy component of geomagnetic disturbance. The SAR-arc must be a major feature of ring current theory.The consumption of energy in polar magnetic and auroral substorms, during a complete storm, is tentatively concluded to be far greater than that of the ring current. The ring current is considered to be a byproduct of magnetic disturbance on higher L-shells.The main phase of a storm should be considered, in storm analysis, as a separate entity from the initial phase, for physically they bear a tenuous and unpredictable relationship to one another. A new system of analysis is proposed in which the onset of geomagnetic noise rather than sudden commencement is taken as the origin of time, both for magnetic and ionospheric storms. This will enable analysis of storms with both gradual and sudden commencements to be made on a common basis.No reliable evidence is found to support the contention that magnetic storms are caused dominantly by neutral H-atoms ejected from the sun. In fact much evidence can be amassed to deny this hypothesis.     

Interplanetary Origin of Intense,Superintense and Extreme Geomagnetic Storms

We present a review on the interplanetary causes of intense geomagnetic storms (Dst≤−100 nT), that occurred during solar cycle 23 (1997–2005). It was reported that the most common interplanetary structures leading to the development of intense storms were: magnetic clouds, sheath fields, sheath fields followed by a magnetic cloud and corotating interaction regions at the leading fronts of high speed streams. However, the relative importance of each of those driving structures has been shown to vary with the solar cycle phase. Superintense storms (Dst≤−250 nT) have been also studied in more detail for solar cycle 23, confirming initial studies done about their main interplanetary causes. The storms are associated with magnetic clouds and sheath fields following interplanetary shocks, although they frequently involve consecutive and complex ICME structures. Concerning extreme storms (Dst≤−400 nT), due to the poor statistics of their occurrence during the space era, only some indications about their main interplanetary causes are known. For the most extreme events, we review the Carrington event and also discuss the distribution of historical and space era extreme events in the context of the sunspot and Gleissberg solar activity cycles, highlighting a discussion about the eventual occurrence of more Carrington-type storms.     

The plasma mantle: Composition and other characteristics observed by means of the PROGNOZ-7 satellite

A brief summary of the main results of magnetospheric ion composition measurements in general is first presented. PROGNOZ-7 measurements in the nightside plasma mantle are then described and analyzed. Some of the results are the following: In the nightside mantle not too far from midnight the properties of the mantle are sometimes consistent with the open magnetosphere model. However during most magnetic storm situations O⁺ ions appear in the mantle in large proportions and with high energies. The acceleration process affecting the ions has been found in several cases to give equal amounts of energy to all ions independent of mass. Along the flanks of the magnetosphere the flow of the plasma is often low or absent. The O⁺ content is high (up to 20%) and the energy spectrum of both ions and electrons may be very hot, even up to the level of the ring current plasma in the keV range.The O⁺ content in the plasma mantle is positively correlated with the magnetospheric activity level. The mantle, however, does not appear to be the dominating source for the storm time ring current. Direct acceleration of ionospheric ions onto the closed field lines of the plasma sheet and ring current is most likely the main source. The magnetopause on the nightside and along the flanks of the magnetosphere appears to be a fairly solid boundary for mantle ions of ionospheric origin. This is especially evident during periods with high geomagnetic activity, when the mantle is associated with fairly strong fluxes of O⁺ ions.An interesting observation in most of the mantle passages during geomagnetically disturbed periods is the occurrence of intense, magnetosheath like, regions deep inside the mantle. In some cases these regions with strong antisunward flow and with predominant magnetosheath ion composition was observed in the innermost part of the mantle, i.e. marking a boundary region between the lobe and the mantle. These magnetosheath penetration events are usually associated with strong fluxes of accelerated ionospheric ions in nearby parts of the mantle. Evanescent penetration regions with much reduced flow properties are frequently observed in the flank mantle.     

Modelling of the magnetic field of magnetospheric ring current as a function of interplanetary medium parameters

The models are examined which are proposed elsewhere for describing the magnetic field dynamics in ring-currentDR during magnetic storms on the basis of the magnetospheric energy balance equation. The equation parameters, the functions of injectionF and decay , are assumed to depend on interplanetary medium parameters (F and during the storm main phase) and on ring-current intensity ( during the recovery phase). The present-day models are shown to be able of describing theDR variations to within a good accuracy (the r.m.s. deviation 5 < < 15 nT, the correlation coefficient 0.85 <r < 1). The models describe a fraction of the geomagnetic field variation during a magnetic storm controlled by the geoeffective characteristic of interplanetary medium and, therefore responds directly to the variation of the latter. The fraction forms the basis of the geomagnetic field variations in low and middle latitudes. The shorter-term variations ofDR are affected by the injections into the inner magnetosphere during substorm intervals.During magnetic storms, the auroral electrojets shift to subauroral latitudes. When determining theAE indices, the data from the auroral-zone stations must be supplemented with the data from subauroral observatories. Otherwise, erratic conclusions may be obtained concerning the character of the relationships ofDR toAE or ofAE to interplanetary medium parameters. Considering this circumstance, the auroral electrojet intensity during the main phase is closely related to the energy flux supplied to the ring current. It is this fact that gives rise simultaneously to the intensification of auroral electrojets and to the large-scale decrease of magnetic field in low latitudes.The longitudinal asymmetry of magnetic field on the Earth's surface is closely associated with the geoeffective parameters of interplanetary medium, thereby making it possible to model-estimate the magnetic field variations during magnetic storms at given observatories. The inclusion of the field asymmetry due to the system of large-scale currents improves significantly the agreement between the predicted and model field variations at subauroral and midlatitude observatories. The first harmonic amplitude of field variation increases with decreasing latitude. This means that the long-period component of theD _st -variation asymmetry is due rather to the ring-current asymmetry, while the shorter-term fluctuations are produced by electrojets. The asymmetry correlates better with theAL indices (westward electrojet) than with theAU indices (eastward electrojet).The total ion energy in the inner magnetosphere during the storm main phase is sufficient for the magnetic field observed on the Earth's surface to be generated. The energy flux to the ring current is 15% of the -energy flux into the magnetosphere.     

Dynamics of magnetospheric ion Composition as observed by the GEOS mass spectrometer

After one year of operation the GEOS-1 Ion Composition Experiment has surveyed plasma composition at all local times in the L range 3 8 and the energy per charge range from thermal to 16 keV/e. From measurements made in the keV range during eleven magnetic storms we find that the percentage of heavy (M/Q > 1) ions present in the outer magnetosphere increases by a factor of 3 to 10 during disturbances. We conclude that two independent sources (solar wind, characterized by ⁴He²⁺, and ionosphere, characterized by O⁺) give on the average comparable contributions to injected populations, although in a single event one or the other source may dominate. However, in magnetically quiet periods protons are the dominant species with a few percent of heavy ions. With the help of special satellite manoeuvres magnetic field aligned fluxes of 0.05-3 keV/e H⁺, He⁺, O⁺ with traces of O²⁺ have been observed which may be related to ion beams found previously at lower altitudes in the auroral zone. At still lower energies ( 1 eV/e) the thermal plasma population is found to be made up of six ion species, three of which, D⁺, He²⁺ and O²⁺, were unknown in the magnetosphere prior to the GEOS-1 measurements. We present here a study of the evolution of doubly charged ions and their parent populations over four consecutive days. Various production mechanisms for doubly charged ions are discussed. We argue that ionization of singly charged ions by UV and energetic electrons and protons is the dominant process for plasmasphere production. Furthermore, the observed high concentrations of O²⁺ at high altitudes are a result of production in the upper ionosphere and plasmasphere combined with upward transport by thermal diffusion. Throughout the 1 year lifetime of GEOS-1 the ICE functioned perfectly and, because of its novel design, a short review of technical performance is included here.     

High energy neutral atom (hena) imager for the IMAGE mission

The IMAGE mission will be the first of its kind, designed to comprehensively image a variety of emissions from the Earth's magnetosphere, with sufficient time resolution to follow the dynamics associated with the development of magnetospheric storms. Energetic neutral atoms (ENA) emitted from the ring current during storms are one of the key emissions that will be imaged. This paper describes the characteristics of the High Energy Neutral Atom imager, HENA. Using pixelated solid state detectors, imaging microchannel plates, electron optics, and time of flight electronics, HENA is designed to return images of the ENA emitting regions of the inner magnetosphere with 2 minute time resolution, at angular resolution of 8 degrees or better above the energy of 50 keV/nucleon. HENA will also image separately the emissions in hydrogen, helium, and oxygen above 30 keV/nucleon. HENA will reject energetic ions below 200 keV/charge, allowing ENA images to be returned in the presence of ambient energetic ions. HENA images will reveal the distribution and the evolution of energetic ion distributions as they are injected into the ring current during geomagnetic storms, as they drift about the Earth on both open and closed drift paths, and as they decay through charge exchange to pre-storm levels. Substorm ion injections will also be imaged, as will the regions of low altitude, high latitude ion precipitation into the upper atmosphere.     

Numerical Simulation of the Ring Current: Review

Numerical simulation of the terrestrial ring current is reviewed. After mentioning ‘modules’ which are needed to be taken into consideration in a ring current simulation, we discuss growth and decay of the ring current. At least four different paradigms have been proposed to account for the ring current development in the past forty years, i.e., the convection paradigm, the substorm paradigm, the diffusion paradigm, and the ionosphere paradigm. As for the proton ring current, a simulation under the convection paradigm gives reasonable results which are in fair agreement with observations with respect to the Dst variation as well as the radial and longitudinal energy density variation of protons when the convection electric field depending on solar wind parameters is given. The proton energy density is observed to be enhanced (weakened) on the nightside, and be weakened (enhanced) near noon during a storm main phase (recovery phase). This characteristic is probably understood to mean that a large-scale and long-standing electric field dominates other electric fields during the storm main phase, e.g., a locally induced electric field (the substorm paradigm) and a highly fluctuated electric field (the diffusion paradigm). The declining of the ring current is shown to be triggered by the decrease in the convection electric field at the beginning of a storm recovery phase, but the decrease in the convection electric field hardly contributes the decay of the ring current. The charge exchange or other loss processes is needed for the substantial decay of it. An ultimate decay rate (several hours) is achieved when the strong diffusion takes place, or when the plasma sheet density drastically decreases while the charge exchange is estimated to provide rather slow decay (a half of day). Diagnosis tools for investigating the ring current, which are expected to bring us a new insight, are proposed in the latter section. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Jovian magnetodisk

Magnetic field measurements made by the vector helium magnetometers on board Pioneers-10 and 11 reveal the existence of a current sheet (thickness 2R _J) carrying an eastward current. Self-consistent studies of the current sheet show that the magnitude of the current is of the order of 10⁺² Am⁺¹ and that the current is carried by a hot (T>1 keV) plasma, the density of which varies between 1 cm⁺³ at 30R _J to 10⁺² cm⁺³ at 80R _J. The current sheet is warped azimuthally and parallel to the magnetic dipole equator.The existence of an azimuthal field component indicates a poloidal plasma flow transporting some 10²⁹ ions per second from Jupiter into the outer magnetosphere. It is shown that, if the outer magnetosphere is in a steady state, this plasma must be transported outward within the current sheet by a diffusion process which is faster than the one responsible for particle transport in the inner magnetosphere but slower than Bohm diffusion. It is suggested that the diffusion is due to the observed mhd turbulence in the current sheet. Such a model requires the existence of open field lines along which particles can escape freely into interplanetary space.Proceedings of the Symposium on Solar Terrestrial Physics held in Innsbruck, May–June 1978.     

The storm-time ring current

In this paper I am reviewing recent advances and open disputes in the study of the terrestrial ring current, with emphasis on its storm-time dynamics. The ring current is carried by energetic charged particles flowing toroidally around the Earth, and creating a ring of westward electric current, centered at the equatorial plane and extending from geocentric distances of about 2 R _E to roughly 9 R _E. This current has a permanent existence due to the natural properties of charged particles in the geospace environment, yet its intensity is variable. It becomes more intense during global electromagnetic disturbances in the near-Earth space, which are known as space (or magnetic or geomagnetic) storms. Changes in this current are responsible for global decreases in the Earth's surface magnetic field, which is the defining feature of geomagnetic storms. The ring current is a critical element in understanding the onset and development of space weather disturbances in geospace. Ring current physics has long been driven by several paradigms, similarly to other disciplines of space physics: the solar origin paradigm, the substorm-driver paradigm, the large-scale symmetry paradigm, the charge-exchange decay paradigm. The paper addresses these paradigms through older and recent important investigations.     

Simulation of three-dimensional solar wind disturbances and resulting geomagnetic storms

A kinematic method of representing the three-dimensional solar wind flow is devised by taking into account qualitatively the stream-stream interaction which leads to the formation of a shock pair. Solar wind particles move radially away from the Sun, satisfying the frozen-magnetic field condition. The uniqueness of the present approach is that one can incorporate both theoretical and observational results by adjusting the parameters involved and that a self-consistent data set can be simulated. One can then infer the three-dimensional structure of the solar wind which is vital in understanding the interaction between the solar wind and the magnetosphere, and it is for this reason that the present kinematic method is devised. In the first part of this paper, the present kinematic method is described in detail by demonstrating that the following solar wind features can be simulated: (i) Variations of the solar wind quantities (such as the solar wind speed, the density and the IMF vector), associated with the solar rotation, at the Earth; (ii) the solar wind flow pattern in the meridian planes; (iii) the three-dimensional structure of the corotating interaction region (CIR); and (iv) the three-dimensional structure of the warped solar current sheet.In Section 2, the three-dimensional structure of solar wind disturbances are studied by introducing a flare-generated high speed stream into the two-stream model of the solar wind developed in Section 1. The treatment of the stream-stream interaction is generalized to deal with a flare-generated high speed stream, yielding a shock pair. The shock pair causes three-dimensional distortion of the solar current sheet as it propagates outward from the Sun. It is shown that a set of characteristic time variations of the solar wind speed, density, the interplanetary magnetic field magnitude B and angles (theta) and gf (phi) result at the time of the passage at the location of the Earth for a given set of flare conditions. These quantities allow us to compute the solar wind-magnetosphere energy coupling function . Time variations of the two geomagnetic indices AE and Dst are then estimated from . The simulated geomagnetic storms are compared with observed ones.In the third part, it is shown that recurrent geomagnetic storms can reasonably be reproduced, if fluctuating components of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) are superposed on the kinematic model of the solar wind developed in the first part. As an example, we simulate the fluctuating components by linearly polarized Alfvén waves and by random variations of the IMF angle (theta). Characteristics of the simulated and observed geomagnetic storms are discussed in terms of the simulated and observed AE and Dst indices. If the fluctuating components of the IMF can generally be identified as hydromagnetic waves, they may be an important cause for individual magnetospheric substorms, while the IMF magnitude B and the solar wind speed V modulate partially the intensity of magnetospheric substorms and storms.     

Energy flux in the Earth's magnetosphere: Storm – substorm relationship

Three ways of the energy transfer in the Earth's magnetosphere are studied. The solar wind MHD generator is an unique energy source for all magnetospheric processes. Field-aligned currents directly transport the energy and momentum of the solar wind plasma to the Earth's ionosphere. The magnetospheric lobe and plasma sheet convection generated by the solar wind is another magnetospheric energy source. Plasma sheet particles and cold ionospheric polar wind ions are accelerated by convection electric field. After energetic particle precipitation into the upper atmosphere the solar wind energy is transferred into the ionosphere and atmosphere. This way of the energy transfer can include the tail lobe magnetic field energy storage connected with the increase of the tail current during the southward IMF. After that the magnetospheric substorm occurs. The model calculations of the magnetospheric energy give possibility to determine the ground state of the magnetosphere, and to calculate relative contributions of the tail current, ring current and field-aligned currents to the magnetospheric energy. The magnetospheric substorms and storms manifest that the permanent solar wind energy transfer ways are not enough for the covering of the solar wind energy input into the magnetosphere. Nonlinear explosive processes are necessary for the energy transmission into the ionosphere and atmosphere. For understanding a relation between substorm and storm it is necessary to take into account that they are the concurrent energy transferring ways. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Magnetic field measurements in space

Conclusions The magnetosphere boundary has been penetrated in several places, conflicting evidence about the ring current location has been found, and the field exterior to the boundary has revealed some unexpected features. Pronouncements about the structure of the geomagnetic and interplanetary magnetic fields are still based on scanty evidence but the experimental basis of such estimates is more adequate than in 1958.The boundary between the geomagnetic field and the interplanetary medium has been found, by Explorer XII, to be located at approximately 10 R _E on the sunlit side of the earth near the equator. It has been observed to fluctuate between 8 and 12 R _E during August, September and October of 1961. During several days in March, 1961, the boundary, on the dark side of the earth, was penetrated repeatedly by Explorer X on an outbound pass near 135° from the earth-sun line. Several interpretations are possible; the most reasonable one at present is that the boundary was fluctuating in this period, placing the satellite alternately inside the geomagnetic field and outside in a region of turbulent magnetic fields and plasma flow.A region of turbulent magnetic fields was also observed by Pioneer I, Pioneer V, and Explorer XII between 10 and 15 R _E on the sunlit side of the earth. Pioneer V observed also a steady field 2 to 5 gammas in magnitude beyond 20 R _E. It appears that there exists a region of turbulent magnetic fields between the geomagnetic field boundary near 10 R _E, and another boundary, located near 14–15 R _E near the earth-sun line. This second boundary was seen only by Pioneer I and Pioneer V; Explorer XII and Explorer X apparently did not reach it. This boundary has been tentatively identified as a shock front in the flow of solar plasma about the magnetosphere (see Figure 5).^{41, 42} The geomagnetic field inside the boundary is relatively quiet. An abrupt transition in the magnitude of fluctuations occurs at the boundary surface. The ratio of fluctuation amplitude, B, to average field, B, decreases from 1 to 0.1 on a passage through the boundary on 13 September 1961.⁴³ The boundary is not unstable in the solar wind but fluctuations in solar wind pressure do cause changes in boundary location.^42,43 The ring current location appears to be above 1.4 R _E and below 5 R _E on the basis of Pioneer I, Vanguard III, and Explorer XII data. Lunik I and II records indicate that it is located between 3 and 4 R _E. Explorer VI data indicates that it must be at distances greater than 4 R _E on the dark side of the earth. Some variation in altitude of a ring current with time appears likely, but the bulk of present evidence limits a possible ring current to a distance of 3 to 5 R _E.The interplanetary field during quiet times is of the order of 2 to 5 gammas. The direction indicated for this field, with a significant component perpendicular to the earth-sun line, is puzzling in view of solar cosmic ray transit times. Solar disturbances with resultant plasma flow past the satellite produce increases in the field magnitude. Field increases at the satellite are sometimes correlated with disturbances observed at the earth.Further investigations are needed to map the magnetosphere and boundary more completely, to investigate the postulated shock front and the turbulent region inside, to refute or confirm the ring current theory, and to measure the interplanetary field direction and magnitude more completely. Theoretical studies are needed to support these experiments and to suggest new avenues of investigations. Particularly needed are theoretical investigations of collisionless shock fronts in plasma flow and of characteristics of the flow between the shock front and the obstacle.     

Energetics of the magnetosphere

Energy flow in various large-scale processes of the Earth's magnetosphere is examined. This energy comes from the solar wind, via the dawn-to-dusk convection electric field, a field established primarily by magnetic merging but with viscous-like boundary interaction as a possible contributor. The convection field passes about 5 × 10¹¹ W to the near-Earth part of the plasma sheet, and also moves the plasma earthward. In addition, 1–3 × 10¹¹ W are given to the complex system of the Birkeland currents: about 4 × 10¹⁰ of this, on the average, goes to parallel acceleration, chiefly of auroral electrons, about 2–3 times that amount to joule heating of the ionosphere, and the rest heats the ring current. The ring current stores energy (mainly as kinetic energy of particles) of the order of 2 × 10¹⁵ J, and this value rises and decays during magnetic storms, on time scales ranging from a fraction of a day to several days. The tail can store comparable amounts as magnetic energy, and appreciable fractions of its energy may be released in substorms, on time scales of tens of minutes. The sporadic power level of such events reaches the order of 3 × 10¹² W. The role of magnetic merging in such releases of magnetic energy is briefly discussed, as is the correlation between properties of the solar wind and magnetospheric power levels.     

Plasmasphere Response: Tutorial and Review of Recent Imaging Results

The plasmasphere is the cold, dense innermost region of the magnetosphere that is populated by upflow of ionospheric plasma along geomagnetic field lines. Driven directly by dayside magnetopause reconnection, enhanced sunward convection erodes the outer layers of the plasmasphere. Erosion causes the plasmasphere outer boundary, the plasmapause, to move inward on the nightside and outward on the dayside to form plumes of dense plasma extending sunward into the outer magnetosphere. Coupling between the inner magnetosphere and ionosphere can significantly modify the convection field, either enhancing sunward flows near dusk or shielding them on the night side. The plasmaspheric configuration plays a crucial role in the inner magnetosphere; wave-particle interactions inside the plasmasphere can cause scattering and loss of warmer space plasmas such as the ring current and radiation belts.     

Modelling of the electromagnetic field in the interplanetary space and in the Earth's magnetosphere

A magnetohydrodynamic model of the solar wind flow is constructed using a kinematic approach. It is shown that a phenomenological conductivity of the solar wind plasma plays a key role in the forming of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) component normal to the ecliptic plane. This component is mostly important for the magnetospheric dynamics which is controlled by the solar wind electric field. A simple analytical solution for the problem of the solar wind flow past the magnetosphere is presented. In this approach the magnetopause and the Earth's bow shock are approximated by the paraboloids of revolution. Superposition of the effects of the bulk solar wind plasma motion and the magnetic field diffusion results in an incomplete screening of the IMF by the magnetopause. It is shown that the normal to the magnetopause component of the solar wind magnetic field and the tangential component of the electric field penetrated into the magnetosphere are determined by the quarter square of the magnetic Reynolds number. In final, a dynamic model of the magnetospheric magnetic field is constructed. This model can describe the magnetosphere in the course of the severe magnetic storm. The conditions under which the magnetospheric magnetic flux structure is unstable and can drive the magnetospheric substorm are discussed. The model calculations are compared with the observational data for September 24–26, 1998 magnetic storm (Dst _min=−205 nT) and substorm occurred at 02:30 UT on January 10, 1997. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.