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Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2017

Astrophysics and Astronomy

M. Anthony Reynolds

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physics

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 Mar 2017

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

M. Anthony Reynolds

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 …


Measurement Of The Stochasticity Of Low-Latitude Geomagnetic Temporal Variations, Mark Anthony Reynolds, James A. Wanliss Mar 2017

Measurement Of The Stochasticity Of Low-Latitude Geomagnetic Temporal Variations, Mark Anthony Reynolds, James A. Wanliss

M. Anthony Reynolds

Ground magnetometer measurements of total magnetic field strength from 6 stations at low latitudes were analyzed using power spectrum and Hurst range scaling techniques. The Hurst exponents for most of these time-series were near 0.5, which indicates stochasticity, with the highest latitude stations exhibiting some persistence with Hurst exponents greater than 0.6. Although no definite correlations are evident, the relative increase of the Hurst exponent with latitude suggests the possibility that the underlying dynamics of the magnetosphere change with latitude. This result may help quantify the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere itself without the direct presence of the solar wind …


Inversion Of Plasmaspheric Euv Remote Sensing Data From The Stp 72-1 Satellite, R.R. Meier, A.C. Nicholas, J.M. Picone, D.J. Melendez-Alvira, G. Ganguli, Mark Anthony Reynolds, E.C. Roelof Mar 2017

Inversion Of Plasmaspheric Euv Remote Sensing Data From The Stp 72-1 Satellite, R.R. Meier, A.C. Nicholas, J.M. Picone, D.J. Melendez-Alvira, G. Ganguli, Mark Anthony Reynolds, E.C. Roelof

M. Anthony Reynolds

Observations of the extreme ultraviolet emission of helium ions at 30.4 nm can be used to study the global shape of the plasmasphere and its dynamical response to geomagnetic forcing. In order to retrieve number densities of plasmaspheric He+ from such observations, we have developed a new inversion technique based on discrete inverse theory, which uses the optical data to optimize a parameterized model of the He+ distribution. We apply this inversion technique to several orbits of data obtained from the Naval Research Laboratory extreme ultraviolet photometric experiment launched on the STP 72-1 satellite in October 1972. The inversion is …