HR: 15:10h
AN: SM42D-07    [PDF]
TI: Energization of Ionospheric Plasma During the April 17, 2002 Storm
AU: * Winglee, R M
EM: winglee@ess.washington.edu
AF: Univ. of Washington, Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, Seattle, WA 98195-1310 United States
AB: Statistical studies as well as recent multi-fluid simulations have demonstrated a correlation between the outflow of ionospheric plasma with the solar wind conditions and especially with the sign of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). This paper investigates the energization of ionospheric and solar wind plasma during the April 17, 2002 storm. This storm provides an excellent means of not only investigate the size of the ionospheric outflows but also the energization of these outflows as a function of solar wind conditions. It is show that will ionospheric outflows are enhanced by the arrival on the magnetic cloud at Earth, much of the ionospheric plasma remains relatively could for the first couple of hours during the event. Variability in the IMF conditions produces some local heating of heavy ions, but during the first part of the event it is the light ions that experience the bulk of the heating. It is only after a few hours when there is a prolonged period of southward IMF, that there is significant depletion of light ions in the magnetotail and the preferential heating of heavy ions occurs. These results demonstrate that conditions between storms and substorms can be very different in the magnetotail, and that this difference will lead to changes in the characteristics of the energetic populations in the tail even for very similar IMF conditions.
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
DE: 2753 Numerical modeling
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA - Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting