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Plasma sheet access to the inner magnetosphere
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Plasma sheet access to the inner magnetosphere

R. H. W Friedel, H Korth, M. G Henderson, M. F Thomsen and J. D Scudder
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol.106(A4), pp.5845-5858
04/01/2001
DOI: 10.1029/2000JA003011

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Abstract

We present here plasma data from the Polar HYDRA instrument giving comprehensive coverage of the inner magnetospheric region from L ∼ 2 outward. Data is projected to an equatorial reference plane yielding a global view of the inner extend of the plasma sheet. We determine the inner boundary for plasma sheet electrons and ions in the μ range 0.05 – 50 eV nT−1 and we compare these to the predicted Alfvén boundaries as a function of the geomagnetic activity index Kp. In general, the simple conventional drift paradigm is shown to be globally consistent with the averaged data in the inner magnetosphere, with electrons adhering better to the predicted boundaries than ions. The data are further compared to the geosynchronous slice as measured by the Los Alamos Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer (MPA) which measures the crossing point of the Alfvén boundaries at geosynchronous altitudes with much better statistical resolution than Polar. Integral to the drift model used is an assumption about the form of the global electric field. The agreement with data validates the simple corotation and convection electric field used and shows that this model describes well the average transport for a wide range of geomagnetic activity and over a large part of the inner magnetosphere.

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