HR: 1340h
AN: SM13A-1192    [Abstracts]
TI: Remote-sensing and In Situ Study of Inner Magnetospheric Coupling During Storms and Substorms
AU: * Goldstein, J
EM: jgoldstein@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, SwRI, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238 United States
AU: Sandel, B R
EM: sandel@arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ 85721 United States
AU: Brandt, P C
EM: pontus.brandt@jhuapl.edu
AF: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723 United States
AU: Burch, J L
EM: jburch@swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, SwRI, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238 United States
AB: During storms and substorms, the inner magnetosphere responds as a globally-coupled system. The components of this system are the plasmasphere, ring current, plasma sheet, and ionosphere. We present observations by IMAGE (which provides global snapshots of the plasmasphere, ring current, and aurora), by ground-based GPS receivers (which measure total electron content), and by in situ spacecraft both at geosynchronous orbit (i.e., LANL) and at ionospheric altitudes (i.e., DMSP). During mild storms with little or no substorm activity, (e.g., 17-18 June 2001) the inner magnetosphere responds mainly to external driving by the solar wind and IMF. During substorms (e.g., 17 April 2002) the inner magnetosphere evolves under the influence of both external and internal processes. We examine the coupling between the high-altitude equatorial plasmapheric plasma, and the ionospheric plasma at the footpoints of the magnetic field lines that pass through the plasmasphere. Weak coupling would result in, among other things, an altitude-dependent L-value for the location of the plasmapause. Strong coupling might occur especially during times when strong region 1 and region 2 current systems are in place.
DE: 2712 Electric fields (2411)
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere--inner
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
DE: 2760 Plasma convection
DE: 2788 Storms and substorms
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting