Physics Commons^™

Thermal Plasmaspheric Morphology: Effect Of Geomagnetic And Solar Activity, Mark Anthony Reynolds, G. Ganguli, J.A. Fedder, J. Lemaire, R.R. Meier, D.J. Melendez-Alvira

Publications

A multispecies kinetic model of the thermal plasma in the plasmasphere is used to predict the spatial dependence of the hydrogen ion and helium ion density and temperature for different levels of geomagnetic and solar activity. The particular convection electric field model chosen is intended for the time intervals between substorms. The plasma density and temperature in the equatorial plane are found to exhibit a local-time variation that is sensitive to the details of the convection electric field. In particular, the parallel temperature increases with altitude and the perpendicular temperature decreases with altitude, except in the postmidnight sector, features that …