Search

The drift ballooning mode (DBM) instability near the inner edge of the plasma sheet (IEPS) is studied further by including a nonstationary earthward flow and flow shear in the analysis. Both equatorial and off-equatorial regions are considered. It is found that the presence of a decelerated earthward flow destabilizes both the M− and M+ branches of the DBM in a large portion of the current sheet near the IEPS and substantially increases the growth rate of the instability. The flow shear in the premidnight sector causes the conventional ballooning mode to weakly subside, while it slightly enhances the growth rate for the Alfvenic ballooning mode. The combination of the earthward flow and flow shear makes both the Alfvenic ballooning mode and conventional ballooning mode grow much faster than they would without the flow, giving rise to coupled Alfvenic slow magnetosonic waves, field-aligned currents, and the formation of a current wedge. A synthesis of tail reconnection and cross-tail current disruption scenarios is proposed for the substorm global initiation process: When the fast flow produced by magnetic reconnection in the midtail abruptly decelerates at the IEPS, it compresses the plasma populations earthward of the front, transports momentum to them, and pushes them farther earthward. This creates the configuration instability in a large portion of the inner tail magnetic field lines on both the tailward side and earthward side of the braking point. As soon as the ionospheric conductance increases over a threshold level, the auroral electrojet is greatly intensified, which leads to the formation of the substorm current wedge and dipolarization of the magnetic field. This substorm paradigm combines the near-Earth neutral line and near-Earth current disruption scenarios for the initiation of substorms and may also synthesize dynamical processes in the rnagnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and field line resonance during the substorm onset. We intend to use this global model to explain substorm expansion onsets occurring under the southward interplanetary magnetic field condition.

The processes influencing the Van Allen belt – a layer of charged particles inside the Earth’s magnetosphere – are poorly understood. Using CRRES and NASA’s Van Allen Probes data, Mann et al. suggest that ultra-low frequency waves may play a larger role in accelerating particles than previously thought.

The Dynamic Radiation Environment Assimilation Model (DREAM) was developed to provide accurate, global specification of the Earth's radiation belts and to better understand the physical processes that control radiation belt structure and dynamics. DREAM is designed using a modular software approach in order to provide a computational framework that makes it easy to change components such as the global magnetic field model, radiation belt dynamics model, boundary conditions, etc. This paper provides a broad overview of the DREAM model and a summary of some of the principal results to date. We describe the structure of the DREAM model, describe the five major components, and illustrate the various options that are available for each component. We discuss how the data assimilation is performed and the data preprocessing and postprocessing that are required for producing the final DREAM outputs. We describe how we apply global magnetic field models for conversion between flux and phase space density and, in particular, the benefits of using a self-consistent, coupled ring current–magnetic field model. We discuss some of the results from DREAM including testing of boundary condition assumptions and effects of adding a source term to radial diffusion models. We also describe some of the testing and validation of DREAM and prospects for future development.

[1] On the 18th of August 2002, during a crossing of the near-Earth plasma sheet Cluster observed an ion flow burst, caused by a near-Earth reconnection event. Cluster observed a tailward bulk flow which reverse to earthward flow, indicating a close passage of the diffusion region. We show that reversals in BZ and BY are consistent with reconnection. During the event, a short duration burst of electrons in the range of a few keV up to more than 100 keV are observed streaming away from the reconnection region. The accelerated electrons were aligned with the magnetic field, streaming tailward, and were observed simultaneously by all four spacecraft located on both the northern and southern side of the current sheet. The four Cluster spacecraft, separated by ∼3700 km, observe the electrons for a time period of ∼60 s, indicating the burst to be a temporal rather than localized feature. A second burst of tailward accelerated electrons observed for ∼40 s was observed by Cluster 1 and 2 upon entering the earthward outflow region. The second beam thus appear to be directed toward the X-line. The flux levels of the energetic electron bursts exceed those of the ambient plasma sheet by a factor 2–4. In general, the highest energetic electron fluxes during this event were observed in the earthward outflow region. Observations indicate that reconnection operates on closed plasma sheet field lines in this event and does not reach lobe field lines.

[1] We use data from four tail seasons (2001–2004) of the Cluster spacecraft to study statistical features of energetic electrons (40–400 keV) in the magnetotail plasma sheet in combination with plasma parameters and indices of geomagnetic activity. We find that the horizontal magnetic field magnitude best orders the energetic electron observations. Using this method we observe a statistical flux gradient toward the neutral sheet. The fluxes also increase with an increase in the vertical magnetic field component (dipolarization). The intensity of supra-thermal electrons is observed to increase strongly as function of plasma temperature. Although the energetic electron fluxes also appear to increase strongly with geomagnetic activity this is found to be mainly due to the increase in plasma temperature with increasing Kp. Investigation of neutral sheet fluxes and phase space densities at fixed first adiabatic invariant (μ) indicates that adiabatic heating can explain observed flux increases during field dipolarization. The spectral slope in the supra-thermal range is observed to be independent of geomagnetic activity (Kp), while there is a significant local time dependence, with harder spectra observed at dawn compared to the dusk side.

[1] An investigation of pitch angle resolved electron data of energy

[1] Using the existing large database of geosynchronous orbit particle measurements from Los Alamos instruments, statistical properties of substorm-injected electron clouds are investigated, with special focus on the pitch angle distribution (PAD) of the electrons. The electron distributions at 6.6 RE do in general show some anisotropy, and their PADs are probably caused by the combined influence of drift orbits, different for each energy and pitch angle, and pitch angle diffusion due to waves. The statistical results of this paper indicate that the PADs during intervals of increased electron flux at energies greater than 10 keV from midnight till noon are dominated by pitch angle diffusion by interaction with waves. The strength of the pitch angle diffusion is seen to initially limit the growth of anisotropy from differential drift speeds and orbits and later on to increase the anisotropy when the diffusion strength decreases. After local noon we find evidence that pitch angle diffusion is no longer important and the PADs are evolving due to differential drift effects.

[1] We map the spatial structure of the electron belts over their radial range (L = 1–11 RE) using a total of 25 years of observations by NASA, ISAS, and GPS spacecraft. Correlation analysis reveals significant radial structuring of the outer belt and identifies three regions, while earlier single-spacecraft studies are used to interpret the results. The central region P1 (L = 4.1–7.5 RE) has a well-known slow response (2–3 days) most probably due to shear-hydrodynamic effects of the interplanetary medium, which excite ULF waves at low latitudes. In the innermost region P0 (L = 3.0–4.1 RE) the electron response is rapid ( 7.5 RE) has a much weaker brief response to magnetic field orientation and low interplanetary plasma velocities, anticorrelated with the other two regions. The findings and, in addition, the solar-cycle modulation of the region size strongly suggest that the solar wind excites nonlinear response modes in the inner magnetosphere which are prototypically revealed in the three regions. Given this spatial variability, the optimal approach to next-generation modeling and electron storm forecasting may differ considerably for each region.

Observations are presented of data taken during a 3-h interval in which five clear substorm onsets/intensifications took place. During this interval ground-based data from the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar, a digital CCD all sky camera, and an extensive array of magnetometers were recorded. In addition data from the CRRES and DMSP spacecraft, whose footprints passed over Scandinavia very close to most of the ground-based instrumentation, are available. The locations and movements of the substorm current system in latitude and longitude, determined from ground and spacecraft magnetic field data, have been correlated with the locations and propagation of increased particle precipitation in the E-region at EISCAT, increased particle fluxes measured by CRRES and DMSP, with auroral luminosity and with ionospheric convection velocities. The onsets and propagation of the injection of magnetospheric particle populations and auroral luminosity have been compared. CRRES was within or very close to the substorm expansion phase onset sector during the interval. The onset region was observed at low latitudes on the ground, and has been confirmed to map back to within L=7 in the magnetotail. The active region was then observed to propagate tailward and poleward. Delays between the magnetic signature of the substorm field aligned currents and field dipolarisation have been measured. The observations support a near-Earth plasma instability mechanism for substorm expansion phase onset.