HR: 16:45h
AN: SM34A-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Mesoscale Ionosphere-Thermosphere Structures and Consequences for the Magnetosphere
AU: * Schunk, R W
EM: schunk@cc.usu.edu
AF: Utah State University, Ctr. Atmos. Space Sciences 4405 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-4405 United States
AB: Measurements have shown that the ionosphere-thermosphere system exhibits a considerable amount of structure. Mesoscale (100-1000 km) plasma structures can appear in the form of propagating plasma patches, auroral and boundary blobs, sun-aligned polar cap arcs, discrete auroral arcs, tongues of ionization, and localized polar holes. These mesoscale ionospheric structures interact with the magnetosphere via propagating and stationary polar wind jets, neutral polar wind streams, upflowing particle beams and conics, and patchy field-aligned currents. Consequently, the mass, momentum, and energy coupling between the ionosphere-thermosphere system and the magnetosphere primarily occurs on coupling scales that are not included in the current global models of the magnetosphere. In addition, the outflowing ionospheric ions generally have highly non-Maxwellian velocity distributions, which might have a significant effect on the stability of the magnetospheric plasma. These and other issues will be discussed.
DE: 2431 Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions (2736)
DE: 2704 Auroral phenomena (2407)
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431)
DE: 2776 Polar cap phenomena
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005