Sources and losses of ring current ions: An update

The cleft ion fountain has been identified as a prodigious source of upflowing suprathermal ionospheric plasma. Modeling efforts have traced the path of these ions from the polar ionosphere along trajectories where the ions are energized to keV energies and deposited in the near earth plasma sheet. Mass and energy dispersion of these ions accounts in a natural way for the observed variation in heavy ion content of the plasma sheet. Observations of ion composition in the plasma sheet by the AMPTE and ISEE spacecraft establish that ionospheric ions dominate in the near earth plasma sheet but solar wind ions become significant tailward. The heavy ion content of the plasma sheet increases with both solar cycle and magnetic activity. Direct injection of ionospheric ions into the ring current has been observed in the outer plasmasphere. Several mechanisms for the direct injection of ions from the plasmasphere and ionosphere into the ring current have appeared. Estimation of ionospheric source strengths and residence times have led to an estimate of the magnetospheric densities that would result solely from an ionospheric outflow populating the magnetosphere. Estimated densities were quite reasonable even without inclusion of a solar wind source of ions. Ring current ions decay primarily via charge exchange with the hydrogen geocorona, however, the roles of pitch angle diffusion and Coulomb collisions in this decay process are being clarified.

Modeling and observations of ENA by the 1SEE1 spacecraft has led to a re-affirmation of the dominant role of charge exchange in ring current decay. Ion cyclotron waves contribute to ring current decay in the dusk bulge region. The role of low frequency. (< 1 Hz) ion cyclotron waves in the plasmasphere is still unclear. Other wave modes may be responsible for the pitch angle diffusion and subsequent loss of ring current ions. Coulomb collisional energy losses from ring current O⁺ to thermal electrons are sufficient to power SAR arcs and represent an energy sink for ring current O⁺ within the plasmasphere. Coulomb collisions may be important for decay of low energy (< 10 KeV) ring current ions in the plasmasphere.     

Characteristics of the high-latitude ionospheric particle sources: Transversely accelerated ions (TAI) at 1400 km

The auroral acceleration process that produces transversely accelerated ions is studied in detail using data primarily from a single auroral oval crossing of the ISIS-2 satellite at 1400 km. This data set is of significance because a special operational mode of the soft particle spectrometers allowed unusual temporal and pitch angle resolution to be obtained. We conclude that transversely accelerated ions having a sharp cutoff in pitch angle were accompanied by the emission of a VLF saucer and the simultaneous occurrence of an upstreaming electron beam. In contrast to the very flat pitch angle distribution of the ions, the highly field-aligned upstreaming electrons (well inside the loss cone) accompanying the ions seem to imply the existence of downward directed electric field parallel to B below 1400 km with net potentials in excess of 200 volts. The occurrence of such field-aligned electrons and VLF saucers in association with some transversely accelerated ions provides additional information on the acceleration process and reveals the complexity of the active flux tube.     

Field-aligned plasmaspheric flows at moderate latitudes

In a model of the plasmasphere, coupled time-dependent continuity, momentum and energy equations are solved for thermal O⁺, H⁺ and electrons. The field-aligned mass flow coupling and thermal coupling of conjugate ionsopheres via the protonosphere are studied. For solstice conditions, thermal coupling between conjugate hemispheres gives rise to very strong upward flows of O⁺ in the topside ionosphere of the summer hemisphere at the time of sunrise in the conjugate (winter) ionosphere; a less marked effect (but with downward flow) occurs in the summer ionosphere at winter sunset. In addition, there are strong upward and downward flows of O⁺ at local sunrise and sunset, respectively, in both hemispheres. At both L = 1.5 and L = 3, the 24-hour time-integrated interhemispheric H⁺ flux is in the summer - winter direction. At L = 1.5 its magnitude is in good agreement with the magnitude of the time- integrated field-aligned plasma (O⁺ + H⁺) flux at 1000 km altitude; there is no such agreement at L = 3.     

A new inversion method of plasma density distribution of plasmasphere in the geomagnetic equatorial plane from IMAGE data

The plasma density distribution of plasmasphere in the geomagnetic equatorial plane can help us study the magnetosphere like plasmasphere, ionosphere and their kinetics. In this paper, we introduce a new inversion method, GE-ART, to calculate the plasma density distribution in the geomagnetic equatorial plane from the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) data of IMAGE satellite under the assumption that the plasma density is constant along each geomagnetic field line. The new GE-ART algorithm was derived from the traditional Algebraic Reconstruction Techniques (ART) in Computed Tomography (CT) which was different from the several existing methods. In this new method, each value of the EUV image data was back-projected evenly to the geomagnetic field lines intersected by this EUV sight. A 3-D inversion matrix was produced by the contributions of all the voxels contained in the plasmasphere covered by the EUV sensor. That is, we considered that each value of the EUV image data was relative to the plasma densities of all the voxels passed through by the corresponding EUV radiation, which is the biggest difference to all the existing inversion methods. Finally, the GE-ART algorithm was evaluated by the real EUV data from the IMAGE satellite.     

Characteristics of field line resonance type geomagnetic pulsations and variations of plasmaspheric plasma density distribution

The period of field line resonance (FLR) type geomagnetic pulsations depends on the length of the field line and on the plasma density in the inner magnetosphere (plasmasphere), where field lines are closed. Here as FLR period, the period belonging to the maximum occurrence frequency of the occurrence frequency spectrum (equivalent resonance curve) of pulsations has been considered. The resonance system may be replaced by an equivalent resonant circuit. The plasma density would correspond to the ohmic load. The plasma in the plasmasphere originates from the ionosphere, thus FLR period, occurrence frequency are also affected by the maximum electron density in the ionosphere. The FLR period has shown an enhancement with increasing F region electron density, while the occurrence frequency indicated diminishing trend (possible damping effect). Thus, the increased plasma density may be the cause of the decreased occurrence of FLR type pulsations in the winter months of solar activity maximum years (winter anomaly).     

不同上边界条件下的极区电离层数值模拟

利用一维自洽的极区电离层模型,研究了沿磁力线方向不同电离层-磁层耦合条件下极区电离层的响应.此模型在110-610km的电离层空间区域内,综合求解描述极区电离层的连续性方程、动量方程和能量方程,以得到电离层数值解.研究发现,上边界条件在200 km以上的高度能显著地影响电离层参量的形态.较高的O+上行速度对应较低的F层峰值和较高的电子温度.不同边界O+上行速度对应的温度高度剖面完全不同.200km以上电子温度高度剖面不但由来自磁层的热流通量所控制,同时还受到场向O+速度的影响.对利用电离层模型研究电离层内部物理过程提出了建议.      

环电流区能量离子分布特性研究

为了考察环电流区离子的分布情况,采用环电流粒子理论模式,对环电流中10-100 keV的离子进行了模拟研究.这个模式能够根据近地注入区外边界处离子的分布函数得出磁暴主相期间环电流中的主要成分H+,O+,He+3种离子的通量分布.计算结果分析表明,在其他条件相同的情况下,不同种类离子的通量分布的形态结构十分相似.电场强度对环电流离子通量的空间分布具有决定性的作用;晨昏电场强度越强,离子的通量越高;晨昏电场越强,环电流离子的内边界越接近地球.10keV的离子在电场相当弱的时候还是存在着连续的通量分布,但他们的形态和结构随着电场的变化有明显的变化.电场很弱时,离子分布主要集中于内外两个环带,离子通量在晨侧的更多一些,离子通量的最大值基本上是在比较靠近地球的环带上;随着电场的增强,离子分布的内外两个环带逐步合并,离子的分布逐渐靠近地球,通量分布的最大值也移动到了昏侧.环电流离子投掷角分布具有各向异性,投掷角在90°左右的时候,离子通量能达到最大值.      

Ion beams at oblique shocks

Using a mixture of hybrid simulations and test particle techniques we investigate the relative importance of two local mechanisms, direct reflection and local leakage, for the production of field-aligned beams at oblique collisionless shocks. For direct reflection, between θ_Bn=40° and 60° the reflected density decreases with increasing M_A and, most strongly, with increasing θ_Bn. As θ_Bn increases the reflected ions increasingly come from the wings of the distribution, and their density becomes dependent on β_i and the form of the incident distribution. We next examine local leakage of the transmitted gyrating particles, assuming they are pitch angle scattered behind the shock. We find such leakage considerably less likely than expected from simple considerations. We also present results for a case where the downstream ions receive extra energization.     

Current sheet with medium scale developed turbulence and the formation of the plasma sheet of Earth''s magnetosphere and solar prominences

A current sheet model with developed medium scale turbulence has been constructed. It is suggested that regular plasma flow in the current sheet is compensated by diffusive flux and plasma mixing, leading to temperature equalization. The analyzed turbulence has the form of electrostatic vortices in which electrons and ions move with the same velocities and hence does not lead to anomalous resistivity and current dissipation. It is possible to determine the plasma pressure dependence on magnetic vector potential and to find the Grad—Shafranov equation solutions. The theory is used to explain the Earth's magnetosphere plasma sheet characteristics. It is taken into account that experimentally observed plasma velocity fluctuations in the Earth's plasma sheet and quiescent prominences are much higher than regular plasma flow velocities. The analysis of turbulent current sheet dynamics after the regular motion weakening allows to construct the prominence formation theory. The decreasing of plasma pressure in the sheet due to diffusion leads to field-aligned plasma flow and plasma tube filling by cold chromospheric plasma by the action of siphon mechanism.     

Deformation of the ionosphere structure during the space weather events on October–November 2003

We present the spatial maps of the ionosphere–plasmasphere slab thickness τ (ratio of the vertical total electron content, TEC, to the F-region peak electron density, NmF2) during the intense ionospheric storms of October–November 2003. The model-assisted technology for estimate of the upper boundary of the ionosphere, hup, from the slab thickness components in the bottomside and topside ionosphere – eliminating the plasmasphere contribution of τ – is applied at latitudes 35° to 70°N and longitudes −10° to 40°E, from the data of 20 observatories of GPS-TEC and ionosonde networks, for selected days and hours of October and November 2003. The daily–hourly values of NmF2, hmF2 and TECgps are used as the constrained parameters for the International Reference Ionosphere extended to the plasmasphere, IRI-Plas, during the ionospheric quiet days, positive and negative storm phases for estimate of τ and hup. Good correlation has been found between the slab thickness and the upper boundary of the ionosphere for the intense ionospheric storms at October–November 2003. During the negative phase of the ionospheric storm, when the ionospheric plasma density is exhausted, the nighttime upper boundary of the ionosphere is greatly uplifted towards the magnetosphere tail, while the daytime upper boundary of the ionosphere is reduced below 500 km over the Earth.     

Controlling factors of Region 2 field-aligned current and its relationship to the ring current: Model results

One essential component of magnetosphere and ionosphere coupling is the closure of the ring current through Region 2 field-aligned current (FAC). Using the Comprehensive Ring Current Model (CRCM), which includes magnetosphere and ionosphere coupling by solving the kinetic equation of ring current particles and the closure of the electric currents between the two regions, we have investigated the effects of high latitude potential, ionospheric conductivity, plasma sheet density and different magnetic field models on the development of Region 2 field-aligned currents, and the relationship between R2 FACs and the ring current. It is shown that an increase in high latitude potential, ionospheric conductivity or plasma sheet density generally results in an increase in Region 2 FACs’ intensity, but R2 FACs display different local time and latitudinal distributions for changes in each parameter due to the different mechanisms involved. Our simulation results show that the magnetic field configuration of the inner magnetosphere is also an important factor in the development of Region 2 field-aligned current. More numerical experiments and observational results are needed in further our understanding of the complex relationship of the two current systems.     

Dynamic trapping of electrons in the porcupine ionospheric ion beam experiment

Electrons are needed to maintain quasineutrality in a case where positive ions are injected across the magnetic field into a limited volume in a magnetized plasma. In the absence of collisions, a positive potential builds up and traps the electrons which enter the region along the magnetic field. If the added density of ions exceeds the ambient density, large potential differences along the magnetic field can be maintained this way. The process explains several features of the Porcupine xenon ion beam injection experiment, where strong magnetic-field-aligned electric fields were measured in the vicinity of a xenon ion beam which was injected into the ambient ionosphere from a spinning subpayload.     

An updated theory of the polar wind

The ‘classical’ polar wind is an ambipolar outflow of thermal plasma from the terrestrial ionosphere at high latitudes. As the plasma escapes along diverging geomagnetic flux tubes, it undergoes four major transitions, including a transition from chemical to diffusion dominance, a transition from subsonic to supersonic flow, a transition from collision-dominated to collisionless regimes, and a transition from a heavy to a light ion. A further complication arises because of horizontal convection of the flux tubes owing to magnetospheric electric fields. Recent modelling predictions indicate that the polar wind has the following characteristics: (1) The ion and electron distributions are anisotropic and asymmetric in the collisionless regime; (2) Elevated electron temperatures ( ∼ 10,000 K) act to produce significant escape fluxes of suprathermal O⁺ ions; (3) The interaction of the hot magnetospheric and cold ionospheric electron populations leads to a localized (double layer) electric field which accelerates the polar wind ions; (4) A time-dependent expansion produces suprathermal ions; and (5) Large perturbations lead to the formation of forward and reverse shocks. These and other results are reviewed.     

地球磁层极尖区场向电子事件期间能量特性研究

根据Cluster卫星2001年9月30日在北半球极尖区观测到的一次强扰动场向电子事件数据,分析研究了这次事件期间场向电子的能量特性,讨论了场向电子对太阳风能量向磁层的传输和磁层-电离层耦合过程中能量传输的作用.分析认为,这次电子扰动事件期间电子速度和密度都具有很强的扰动变化,电子速度增加是一个主要特点.本次事件中低能段5~200eV和500~1500eV内的能谱分析结果表明,上行电子通量大于下行电子通量,上行电子主要来源于电离层,说明电离层上行电子在本次事件中具有非常活跃的作用.根据电离层中带电粒子的能量特征分析结果可知,这次事件中电离层起源的上行电子在上行过程中得到了加速.关于加速机制问题还有待深入研究.      

Plasmaphere and plasmapause region characteristics as measured by DE-1

Thermal ion composition measurements by the Retarding Ion Mass Spectrometer (RIMS) on Dynamics Explorer-1 have revealed new and intriguing features of the thermal ion distributions in the plasmasphere and plasmapause regions. Some of the interesting new findings include: the presence of intense fluxes of heated and equatorially-trapped light ions within the plasmapause region; the existence of a heavy ion (0+, 0++, N+) ‘torus’ or ‘shell’ in the outer plasmasphere; and the relatively stable nature of the He+/H+ concentration ratio (∼0.2–0.3) within the plasmasphere. The relatively short (∼7.5 hours) orbital period of DE-1 has also allowed improved observations on the formation of the new outer plasmasphere during the recovery of geomagnetic storms. Statistical studies of plasmaspheric density structure and boundaries are beginning to reveal a picture of their relation to other magnetospheric boundaries, such as the inner edge of the electron plasma sheet, and trends in the internal density structure of the plasmasphere.     

Arbitrary amplitude ion-acoustic waves in a plasma with nonthermal electrons

We investigated the effect of the presence of a nonthermal electron population on the electrostatic nonlinear waves. We considered positively charged ions with two electron populations. Using the fluid equations for the unmagnetized case and the Sagdeev pseudo-potential approach the nonlinear ion-acoustic waves are studied. The cold electrons are in thermal equilibrium while the hot electron population follows a nonthermal distribution. Numerical investigation shows the importance of the presence of small amount of cold electrons that make it possible for the plasma to support nonlinear waves. We obtained the minimum cold electron density necessary to sustain these nonlinear waves. The relevant situation corresponds to the upper ionosphere where energetic electrons have been observed.     

FY-3A观测的次南大西洋异常区形成机理

研究FY-3A卫星观测到的内辐射带质子通量分布,发现3～5MeV能道出现除南大西洋异常区以外的第二个异常区.该异常区是一个质子通量的次极值区,由于该质子通量极值区比主南大西洋异常区强度弱、面积小,因此称之为次南大西洋异常区.通过在主南大西洋异常区和次南大西洋异常区分别选取有代表性的样本点进行研究,发现内辐射带质子通量随投掷角近似呈正态分布,当投掷角在90°附近时,质子通量出现极大值;当投掷角大于120°或者小于60°时,质子通量几乎为零.此外,主南大西洋异常区质子通量在各个能道均为完全各向异性,次南大西洋异常区质子通量随着能道增高逐渐趋于各向同性.通过NOAA观测数据对此规律进行了验证,并由此解释了次南大西洋异常区的形成机理.      

Evaluation of the IRI-2016 and NeQuick electron content specification by COSMIC GPS radio occultation,ground-based GPS and Jason-2 joint altimeter/GPS observations

We examined performance of two empirical profile-based ionospheric models, namely IRI-2016 and NeQuick-2, in electron content (EC) and total electron content (TEC) representation for different seasons and levels of solar activity. We derived and analyzed EC estimates in several representative altitudinal intervals for the ionosphere and the plasmasphere from the COSMIC GPS radio occultation, ground-based GPS and Jason-2 joint altimeter/GPS observations. It allows us to estimate a quantitative impact of the ionospheric electron density profiles formulation in several altitudinal intervals and to examine the source of the model-data discrepancies of the EC specification from the bottom-side ionosphere towards the GPS orbit altitudes. The most pronounced model-data differences were found at the low latitude region as related to the equatorial ionization anomaly appearance. Both the IRI-2016 and NeQuick-2 models tend to overestimate the daytime ionospheric EC and TEC at low latitudes during all seasons of low solar activity. On the contrary, during high solar activity the model results underestimated the EC/TEC observations at low latitudes. We found that both models underestimated the EC for the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere regions for all levels of solar activity. For low solar activity, the underestimated EC from the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere can compensate the overestimation of the ionospheric EC and, consequently, can slightly decrease the resulted model overestimation of the ground-based TEC. For high solar activity, the underestimated EC from the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere leads to a strengthening of the model underestimation of the ground-based TEC values. We demonstrated that the major source of the model-data discrepancies in the EC/TEC domain comes from the topside ionosphere/plasmasphere system.     

Analysis of the ionosphere/plasmasphere electron content variability during strong geomagnetic storm

The ionosphere/plasmasphere electron content (PEC) variations during strong geomagnetic storms in November 2004 were estimated by combining of mid-latitude Kharkov incoherent scatter radar observations and GPS TEC data derived from global TEC maps. The comparison between two independent measurements was performed by analysis of the height-temporal distribution for specific location corresponding to the mid-latitudes of Europe. The percentage contribution of PEC to GPS TEC indicated the clear dependence from the time with maximal values (more than 70%) during night-time. During day-time the lesser values (30–45%) were observed for quiet geomagnetic conditions and rather high values of the PEC contribution to GPS TEC (up to 90%) were observed during strong negative storm. These changes can be explained by the competing effects of electric fields and winds, which tend to raise the layer to the region with lower loss rate and movement of the ionospheric plasma to the plasmasphere.     

Plasma effects of active ion beam injections in the ionosphere at rocket altitudes

Data from ARCS rocket ion beam injection experiments will be primarily discussed in this paper. There are three results from this series of active experiments that are of particular interest in space plasma physics. These are the transverse acceleration of ambient ions in the large beam volume, the scattering of beam ions near the release payload, and the possible acceleration of electrons very close to the plasma generator which produce intense high frequency waves. The ability of 100 ma ion beam injections into the upper E and F regions of the ionosphere to produce these phenomena appear to be related solely to the process by which the plasma release payload and the ion beam are neutralized. Since the electrons in the plasma release do not convect with the plasma ions, the neutralization of both the payload and beam must be accomplished by large field-aligned currents (milliamperes/square meter) which are very unstable to wave growth of various modes. Future work will concentrate on the wave production and wave-particle interactions that produce the plasma/energetic particle effects discussed in this paper and which have direct application to natural phenomena in the upper ionosphere and magnetosphere.