scholarly journals Proton isotropy boundaries as measured on mid- and low-altitude satellites

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1839-1847 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Yu. Ganushkina ◽  
T. I. Pulkkinen ◽  
M. V. Kubyshkina ◽  
V. A. Sergeev ◽  
E. A. Lvova ◽  
...  

Abstract. Polar CAMMICE MICS proton pitch angle distributions with energies of 31-80 keV were analyzed to determine the locations where anisotropic pitch angle distributions (perpendicular flux dominating) change to isotropic distributions. We compared the positions of these mid-altitude isotropic distribution boundaries (IDB) for different activity conditions with low-altitude isotropic boundaries (IB) observed by NOAA 12. Although the obtained statistical properties of IDBs were quite similar to those of IBs, a small difference in latitudes, most pronounced on the nightside and dayside, was found. We selected several events during which simultaneous observations in the same local time sector were available from Polar at mid-altitudes, and NOAA or DMSP at low-altitudes. Magnetic field mapping using the Tsyganenko T01 model with the observed solar wind input parameters showed that the low- and mid-altitude isotropization boundaries were closely located, which leads us to suggest that the Polar IDB and low-altitude IBs are related. Furthermore, we introduced a procedure to control the difference between the observed and model magnetic field to reduce the large scatter in the mapping. We showed that the isotropic distribution boundary (IDB) lies in the region where Rc/ρ~6, that is at the boundary of the region where the non-adiabatic pitch angle scattering is strong enough. We therefore conclude that the scattering in the large field line curvature regions in the nightside current sheet is the main mechanism producing isotropization for the main portion of proton population in the tail current sheet. This mechanism controls the observed positions of both IB and IDB boundaries. Thus, this tail region can be probed, in its turn, with observations of these isotropy boundaries. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Energetic particles, Precipitating; Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; Magnetotail)

2021 ◽  
Vol 922 (2) ◽  
pp. 271
Author(s):  
Ding Sheng ◽  
Kaijun Liu ◽  
V. Florinski ◽  
J. D. Perez

Abstract Hybrid simulations in 2D space and 3D velocity dimensions with continuous injection of pickup ions (PUIs) provide insight into the plasma processes that are responsible for the pitch angle scattering of PUIs outside the heliopause. The present investigation includes for the first time continuous injection of PUIs and shows how the scattering depends on the energy of the PUIs and the strength of the background magnetic field as well as the dependence on the injection rate of the time for the isotropization of the pitch angle distribution. The results demonstrate that, with the gradual injection of PUIs of a narrow ring velocity distribution perpendicular to the background magnetic field, oblique mirror mode waves develop first, followed by the growth of quasiparallel propagating ion cyclotron waves. Subsequently, the PUIs are scattered by the excited waves and gradually approach an isotropic distribution. A time for isotropization is defined to be the time at which T ∣∣/T ⊥, i.e., the ratio of the parallel to perpendicular PUI thermal energy changes from ≈0 to ≈0.15. By varying the PUI injection rate, estimates of the time for the PUI distribution to be isotropized are presented. The isotropization time obtained is shorter, ≈ months, than the time, ≈ years, required by the conventional secondary ENA mechanism to explain the IBEX ENA ribbon.


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1947-1953 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Zimbardo ◽  
A. Greco ◽  
A. L. Taktakishvili ◽  
P. Veltri ◽  
L. M. Zelenyi

Abstract. The influence of magnetic turbulence in the near-Earth magnetotail on ion motion is investigated by numerical simulation. The magnetotail current sheet is modelled as a magnetic field reversal with a normal magnetic field com-ponent Bn , plus a three-dimensional spectrum of magnetic fluctuations dB which represents the observed magnetic turbulence. The dawn-dusk electric field Ey is also considered. A test particle simulation is performed using different values of Bn and of the fluctuation level dB/B0. We show that when the magnetic fluctuations are taken into account, the particle dynamics is deeply affected, giving rise to an increase in the cross tail transport, ion heating, and current sheet thickness. For strong enough turbulence, the current splits in two layers, in agreement with recent Cluster observations.Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetospheric configuration and dynamics) – Interplanetary physics (MHD waves and turbulence) – Electromagnetics (numerical methods)


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Buzulukova ◽  
Jerry Goldstein ◽  
Mei-Ching Fok ◽  
Alex Glocer ◽  
Phil Valek ◽  
...  

Abstract. During the 14 November 2012 geomagnetic storm, the Van Allen Probes spacecraft observed a number of sharp decreases (“dropouts”) in particle fluxes for ions and electrons of different energies. In this paper, we investigate the global magnetosphere dynamics and magnetosphere–ionosphere (M–I) coupling during the dropout events using multipoint measurements by Van Allen Probes, TWINS, and AMPERE together with the output of the two-way coupled global BATS-R-US–CRCM model. We find different behavior for two pairs of dropouts. For one pair, the same pattern was repeated: (1) weak nightside Region 1 and 2 Birkeland currents before and during the dropout; (2) intensification of Region 2 currents after the dropout; and (3) a particle injection detected by TWINS after the dropout. The model predicted similar behavior of Birkeland currents. TWINS low-altitude emissions demonstrated high variability during these intervals, indicating high geomagnetic activity in the near-Earth tail region. For the second pair of dropouts, the structure of both Birkeland currents and ENA emissions was relatively stable. The model also showed quasi-stationary behavior of Birkeland currents and simulated ENA emissions with gradual ring current buildup. We confirm that the first pair of dropouts was caused by large-scale motions of the OCB (open–closed boundary) during substorm activity. We show the new result that this OCB motion was associated with global changes in Birkeland (M–I coupling) currents and strong modulation of low-altitude ion precipitation. The second pair of dropouts is the result of smaller OCB disturbances not related to magnetospheric substorms. The local observations of the first pair of dropouts result from a global magnetospheric reconfiguration, which is manifested by ion injections and enhanced ion precipitation detected by TWINS and changes in the structure of Birkeland currents detected by AMPERE. This study demonstrates that multipoint measurements along with the global model results enable the reconstruction of a more complete system-level picture of the dropout events and provides insight into M–I coupling aspects that have not previously been investigated. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (magnetosphere–ionosphere interactions; magnetospheric configuration and dynamics); space plasma physics (numerical simulation studies)


2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 849-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Benck ◽  
L. Mazzino ◽  
M. Cyamukungu ◽  
J. Cabrera ◽  
V. Pierrard

Abstract. When flux enhancements of energetic electrons are produced as a consequence of geomagnetic storm occurrence, they tend to vanish gradually when the magnetic activity calms down and the fluxes decay to quiet-time levels. We use SAC-C and DEMETER low altitude observations to estimate the energetic electron lifetimes (E=0.16–1.4 MeV, L=1.6–5, B=0.22–0.46 G) and compare the decay rates to those observed at high altitude. While crossing the radiation belts at high latitude, the SAC-C and DEMETER instruments sample particles with small equatorial pitch angles (αeq<18° for L>2.5) whereas the comparison is done with other satellite data measured mainly in the equatorial plane (for αeq>75°). While in the inner belt and in the slot region no significant lifetime differences are observed from the data sets with different αeq, in the outer belt, for the least energetic electrons (<500 keV), the lifetimes are up to ~3 times larger for the electrons with the equatorial pitch-angle close to the loss cone than for those mirroring near the equator. The difference decreases with increasing energy and vanishes for energies of about 1 MeV.


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1965-1973 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Taktakishvili ◽  
A. Greco ◽  
G. Zimbardo ◽  
P. Veltri ◽  
G. Cimino ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper reports the results of numerical modeling of magnetosheath ion motion in the magnetopause current sheet (MCS) in the presence of magnetic fluctuations. Our model of magnetic field turbulence has a power law spectrum in the wave vector space, reaches maximum intensity in the center of MCS, and decreases towards the magnetosheath and magnetosphere boundaries. We calculated the density profile across the MCS. We also calculated the number of particles entering the magnetosphere, reflected from the magnetopause and escaping from the flanks, as a function of the fluctuation level of the turbulence and magnetic field shear parameter. All of these quantities appeared to be strongly dependent on the fluctuation level, but not on the magnetic field shear parameter. For the highest fluctuation levels the number of particles entering the magnetosphere does not exceed 15% of the total number of particles launched from the magnetosheath side of the MCS; the modeling also reproduced the effective reflection of the magnetosheath flow from very high levels of magnetic fluctuations.Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetosheath; magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; turbulence)


2011 ◽  
Vol 287-290 ◽  
pp. 2916-2920
Author(s):  
Chun Yan Ban ◽  
Peng Qian ◽  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Qi Xian Ba ◽  
Jian Zhong Cui

The resistance of Al-21%Cu alloy under no magnetic field, DC magnetic field and AC magnetic field from liquid to solid was measured by a four-probe method. The difference of resistance versus temperature curves (R-T curves) was analyzed. It is found that the R-T curves of Al-21%Cu alloy are monotone decreasing and have two obvious turning points. Under DC magnetic field, the liquidus and solidus temperatures of the alloy both decrease, while under AC magnetic field, the liquidus and solidus temperatures both increase. There is a good agreement between the microstructure of quenching sample and R-T curves. The mechanism of the effect of magnetic fields was discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhou ◽  
Bingjun Cheng ◽  
Xiaochen Gou ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
Yiteng Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract The High Precision Magnetometer (HPM) is one of the main payloads onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES). The HPM consists of two Fluxgate Magnetometers (FGM) and the Coupled Dark State Magnetometer (CDSM), and measures the magnetic field from DC to 15 Hz. The FGMs measure the vector components of the magnetic field; while the CDSM detects the magnitude of the magnetic field with higher accuracy, which can be used to calibrate the linear parameters of the FGM. In this paper, brief descriptions of measurement principles and performances of the HPM, ground, and in-orbit calibration results of the FGMs are presented, including the thermal drift and magnetic interferences from the satellite. The HPM in-orbit vector data calibration includes two steps: sensor non-linearity corrections based on on-ground calibration and fluxgate linear parameter calibration based on the CDSM measurements. The calibration results show a reasonably good stability of the linear parameters over time. The difference between the field magnitude calculated from the calibrated FGM components and the magnitude directly measured by the CDSM is just 0.5 nT (1σ) when the linear parameters are fitted separately for the day- and the night-side. Satellite disturbances have been analyzed including soft and hard remanence as well as magnetization of the magnetic torquer, radiation from the Tri-Band Beacon, and interferences from the rotation of the solar wing. A comparison shows consistency between the HPM and SWARM magnetic field data. Observation examples are introduced in the paper, which show that HPM data can be used to survey the global geomagnetic field and monitor the magnetic field disturbances in the ionosphere.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 2457-2474 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Forsyth ◽  
M. Lester ◽  
R. C. Fear ◽  
E. Lucek ◽  
I. Dandouras ◽  
...  

Abstract. Following a solar wind pressure pulse on 3 August 2001, GOES 8, GOES 10, Cluster and Polar observed dipolarizations of the magnetic field, accompanied by an eastward expansion of the aurora observed by IMAGE, indicating the occurrence of two substorms. Prior to the first substorm, the motion of the plasma sheet with respect to Cluster was in the ZGSM direction. Observations following the substorms show the occurrence of current sheet waves moving predominantly in the −YGSM direction. Following the second substorm, the current sheet waves caused multiple current sheet crossings of the Cluster spacecraft, previously studied by Zhang et al. (2002). We further this study to show that the velocity of the current sheet waves was similar to the expansion velocity of the substorm aurora and the expansion of the dipolarization regions in the magnetotail. Furthermore, we compare these results with the current sheet wave models of Golovchanskaya and Maltsev (2005) and Erkaev et al. (2008). We find that the Erkaev et al. (2008) model gives the best fit to the observations.


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