Journal article
The electron density at the midpoint of the plasmapause
Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences, Vol.11, 1376073
05/01/2024
DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2024.1376073
Abstract
The high density plasmasphere in the magnetosphere is often separated from a lower density region outside of the plasmasphere, called the plasmatrough, by a sharp gradient in electron density called the plasmapause. Here we use plasmapause events identified from electron density data from the ISEE, CRRES, Polar, and IMAGE missions, and the nonlinear genetic algorithm TuringBot, to find models for the electron density at the midpoint of the plasmapause, ne,pp. A good model for ne,pp should include dependence on L, which is the strongest dependence. But models can be improved by including weaker dependencies on the magnetic local time, MLT, the solar EUV index F10.7, and geomagnetic activity as indicated by averages of Kp and AE. The most complicated model that we present predicts ne,pp within a factor of 1.64, and is within the range of observed plasmapause densities for about 96% of our events. These models can be useful for separating plasma populations into plasmasphere-like and plasmatrough-like populations. We also make available our database of electron density measurements categorized into various populations.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The electron density at the midpoint of the plasmapause
- Creators
- Richard E. Denton - Dartmouth CollegePhoebe M. Tengdin - Dartmouth CollegeDavid P. Hartley - University of IowaJerry Goldstein - Southwest Research InstituteJinmyoung Lee - Dartmouth CollegeKazue Takahashi - Johns Hopkins University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences, Vol.11, 1376073
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media S.A
- DOI
- 10.3389/fspas.2024.1376073
- eISSN
- 2296-987X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/01/2024
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984626030002771
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