Recirculation of plasmasphere material during idealized magnetic storms

Frontiers in Physics

Physics

Brian M. Walsh¹  Daniel T. Welling²  Roxanne Katus³  Christian-Andrew Bagby-Wright⁴  Ramon E. Lopez⁴ 

[1] Center for Space Physics, College of Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States;Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States;College of Arts and Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI, United States;Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States;

关键词: plasmasphere;    inner magnetosphere;    reconnection;    simulation;    recirculation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphy.2023.1146035

 received in 2023-01-16, accepted in 2023-03-20,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The fate of flux tube material once it is eroded from of the plasmasphere through a dayside plume remains unknown. The eroded plasmasphere material can be either swept away by the solar wind and lost from Earth’s system, or recirculated into the inner magnetosphere. Recirculating plasmasphere material could plausibly enter the central plasma sheet and contribute to the ring current. This work uses numerical models to explore this possibility. Historically this has been a difficult question to answer due to the fact that solar wind, ionosphere, and plasmaspheric plasmas are all dominated by hydrogen making it difficult to distinguish the source of plasma from observation alone. Recent advances in computing have enabled us to answer this question. Using the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) to couple the Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solar-Roe-Up-Wind-Scheme (BATS-R-US), Dynamic Global Core Plasma Model (DGCPM), and the Ridley Ionosphere Model (RIM), we can track the motion of the plasmaspheric material once it leaves the plasmasphere in a self-consistent manner.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Bagby-Wright, Welling, Lopez, Katus and Walsh.