HR: 08:00h
AN: SA11B-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Extreme Space Weather: Storm Fronts at the Plasmasphere Boundary Layer
AU: * Foster, J C
EM: jfoster@haystack.mit.edu
AF: MIT Haystack Observatory, Route 40, Westford, MA 01886 United States
AU: Coster, A J
EM: acoster@haystack.mit.edu
AF: MIT Haystack Observatory, Route 40, Westford, MA 01886 United States
AU: Rideout, W
EM: wrideout@haystack.mit.edu
AF: MIT Haystack Observatory, Route 40, Westford, MA 01886 United States
AB: Disturbance electric fields during the major geomagnetic storms of October and November 2003 resulted in the large-scale perturbation and redistribution of Earth's thermal plasma environment. The solar-produced plasmas of the low-latitude ionosphere and plasmasphere erupted poleward in response to storm-time penetrating electric fields, producing greatly-enhanced plasma concentrations at middle latitudes in the North American sector. Sub-auroral electric fields stripped away these regions of enhanced total electron content (TEC) and carried them sunward as intense plumes of storm-enhanced density (SED). Very sharp spatial gradients in mid-latitude TEC developed associated with magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling effects and instability growth at the plasmasphere boundary layer. We use distributed ground-based imagery of total electron content derived from GPS observations to produce high-resolution spatial and temporal maps of the intensity and evolution of these features. The Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar and overflights with the DMSP satellites are used to investigate the characteristics of the processes involved in the formation of such severe space weather conditions at mid latitudes. During the November 20, 2003 event, TEC over the continental USA approached 300 TECu. The steepest spatial gradients in TEC (in excess of 100 TECu per degree of latitude) occurred as perturbations developed in the sub auroral polarization stream (SAPS) along the plasmasphere boundary layer.
DE: 2431 Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions (2736)
DE: 2435 Ionospheric disturbances
DE: 2443 Midlatitude ionosphere
DE: 2768 Plasmasphere
DE: 2788 Storms and substorms
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting