HR: 0800h
AN: SM31B-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Plume Contribution to the Plasma Sheet and Ring Current
AU: * Moore, T E
EM: tmoore@pop600.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA's Goddard SFC, Heliophysics Science Division Code 670, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Fok, M H
EM: mei-ching.h.fok@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA's Goddard SFC, Heliophysics Science Division Code 670, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Delcourt, D C
AF: Centre d'études Environnements Terrestre et Planetaires (CETP), 4, Ave de Neptune, Staint-Maur, 94107, France
AU: Slinker, S P
AF: LET Corp., 4431 MacArthur Blvd NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States
AU: Fedder, J A
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave SW, Washington, DC 20375, United States
AB: We investigate the fate of plasmaspheric plumes to assess the resultant enhancement of plasma sheet and ring current pressure and compare with that for steady polar wind outflows. We use test particle motions in LFM global circulation model fields. The inner magnetosphere is simulated with the CRCM model of Fok and Wolf, including the Ober plasmasphere model. Global circulation is stimulated by a period of southward IMF embedded in a longer interval of northward IMF. This leads to the production of a realistic plasmaspheric plume, enhancing the plasma density on the dayside. Large numbers of test particles are launched with the properties of plasmaspheric ions on the L=8 shell, and weighted by densities as specified by the Ober model, as it responds to enhanced convection. Particles are tracked until they are lost from the system downstream or into the atmosphere, using the full equations of motion as implemented in the Delcourt code. Results are compared with earlier computations for polar wind outflows from the region above 55 deg. latitude. The plume produces an enhanced cloud of polar wind like plasma that flows through the polar caps and lobes, entering the plasma sheet reconnection region and splitting into earthward and tailward flows. We assess the magnitude and duration of the resultant pressure enhancement.
UR: http:gpl.gsfc.nasa.gov/public/traj/dynamic-fields/SBz/plasmasphere/
DE: 2463 Plasma convection (2760)
DE: 2764 Plasma sheet
DE: 2768 Plasmasphere
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly