HR: 11:35h
AN: SM41D-06    [PDF]
TI: EFFECTS OF THE SOLAR WIND AND IONOSPHERIC CONDUCTANCE ON THE TRANSPOLAR POTENTIAL AND MAGNETOSHEATH FLOW: GLOBAL MHD MODELING
AU: * Merkine, V G
EM: merkin@astro.umd.edu
AF: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
AU: Sharma, S
AF: Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
AU: Papadopoulos, D
AF: Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
AU: Papadopoulos, D
AF: Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
AU: Lyon, J
AF: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755
AU: Goodrich, C
AF: Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215
AU: Odstrcil, D
AF: NOAA, Space Environment Center, Boulder, CO 80305
AB: The behavior of the magnetosphere-ionosphere system under the influence of a strong solar wind electric field is studied using global MHD simulations. The simulations indicate the saturation of the transpolar potential for high values of IEF. However, the saturation level is strongly affected by the level of ionospheric conductance. A mechanism of the ionospheric conductance feedback on the magnetosheath flow is presented. The mechanism describes a chain of events from the ionosphere to the magnetopause and to the magnetosheath and shows that the dayside reconnection potential, and consequently the transpolar potential, are determined by the interplay between the ionospheric conductance, magnetopause shape, magnetosheath flow and bow shock stand off distance. Effects of the solar wind dynamic pressure are discussed along with the effect of the ionospheric conductance, and the latter is shown to be dominant.
DE: 2708 Current systems (2409)
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 2776 Polar cap phenomena
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting