HR: 16:30h
AN: SM22D-03    [PDF]
TI: A Fresh Perspective of the Substorm Current System and Its Dynamo
AU: * Lui, A T
EM: Tony.Lui@jhuapl.edu
AF: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd., Laurel, MD 20723-6099 United States
AU: Kamide, Y
EM: kamide@stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp
AF: Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Honohara 3-13, Toyokawa, Aichi, 442 Japan
AB: The common view for the substorm current system is a current wedge involving principally an azimuthal current system. We first evaluate briefly previous studies that provide strong evidence for the dominance of a meridional current system (MCS) in substorms. Based on these clues, we propose the dynamo for the MCS to be a kinetic current disruption process in the magnetotail such that dipolarization is achieved by magnetic field line slippage, thus producing the dynamo action of a tailward directed current with an earthward directed electric field. The total current strength is estimated to be about 10 MA for an average substorm size, consistent with that obtained from the KRM algorithm.
DE: 7827 Kinetic and MHD theory
DE: 7839 Nonlinear phenomena
DE: 7859 Transport processes
DE: 7863 Turbulence
DE: 7871 Waves and instabilities
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting