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Plasmaspheric Density Structures and Dynamics: Properties Observed by the CLUSTER and IMAGE Missions |
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| Authors: | Fabien Darrouzet Dennis L Gallagher Nicolas André Donald L Carpenter Iannis Dandouras Pierrette M E Décréau Johan De Keyser Richard E Denton John C Foster Jerry Goldstein Mark B Moldwin Bodo W Reinisch Bill R Sandel Jiannan Tu |
| Institution: | 1. Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (IASB-BIRA), 3 Avenue Circulaire, 1180, Brussels, Belgium 2. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), NASA, Huntsville, AL, USA 3. Research and Scientific Support Department (RSSD), ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 4. Space, Telecommunications and Radioscience Laboratory (STAR), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA 5. Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements (CESR), CNRS/Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France 6. Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement (LPCE), CNRS/Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France 7. Physics and Astronomy Department, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA 8. Haystack Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Westford, MA, USA 9. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio, TX, USA 10. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 11. Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Massachusetts-Lowell (UML), Lowell, MA, USA 12. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL), University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA |
| Abstract: | Plasmaspheric density structures have been studied since the discovery of the plasmasphere in the late 1950s. But the advent of the Cluster and Image missions in 2000 has added substantially to our knowledge of density structures, thanks to the new capabilities of those missions: global imaging with Image and four-point in situ measurements with Cluster. The study of plasma sources and losses has given new results on refilling rates and erosion processes. Two-dimensional density images of the plasmasphere have been obtained. The spatial gradient of plasmaspheric density has been computed. The ratios between H+, He+ and O+ have been deduced from different ion measurements. Plasmaspheric plumes have been studied in detail with new tools, which provide information on their morphology, dynamics and occurrence. Density structures at smaller scales have been revealed with those missions, structures that could not be clearly distinguished before the global images from Image and the four-point measurements by Cluster became available. New terms have been given to these structures, like “shoulders”, “channels”, “fingers” and “crenulations”. This paper reviews the most relevant new results about the plasmaspheric plasma obtained since the start of the Cluster and Image missions. |
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