HR: 1340h
AN: SH44A-1706    [Abstracts]
TI: Recent Plasma Observations Related to Dayside Magnetic Merging and the Low-Latitude Boundary Layer
AU: * Chandler, M O
EM: michael.o.chandler@nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, 320 Sparkman Dr., Huntsville, AL 35805, United States
AU: Avanov, L A
EM: levon.a.avanov@nasa.gov
AF: CSPAR, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 301 Sparkman Dr., Huntsville, AL 35899, United States
AU: Craven, P D
EM: paul.d.craven@nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, 320 Sparkman Dr., Huntsville, AL 35805, United States
AU: Mozer, F S
EM: fmozer@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
AU: Moore, T E
EM: thomas.e.moore@nasa.gov
AF: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Laboratory for Solar and Space Physics, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AB: We have begun an investigation of the nature of the low-latitude boundary layer in the mid-altitude cusp region using data from the Polar spacecraft. This region has been routinely sampled for about three months each year for the periods 1999-2001 and 2004-2006. The low-to-mid-energy ion instruments frequently observed dense, magnetosheath-like plasma deep (in terms of distance from the magnetopause and in invariant latitude) in the magnetosphere. One such case, taken during a period of northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), shows magnetosheath ions within the magnetosphere with velocity distributions resulting from two separate merging sites along the same field lines. Cold ionospheric ions were also observed counterstreaming along the field lines, evidence that these field lines were closed. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that double merging can produce closed field lines populated by solar wind plasma. Through the use of individual cases such as this and statistical studies of a braoder database we seek to understand the morphology of the LLBL as it projects from the sub-solar region into the cusp. We will present preliminary results of our ongoing study.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 7513 Coronal mass ejections (2101)
DE: 7519 Flares
DE: 7831 Laboratory studies and experimental techniques
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection (2723, 7526)
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting