Extreme Ultraviolet Imager Observations of the Structure and Dynamics of the Plasmasphere

The IMAGE Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUV) provides our first global images of the plasmasphere by imaging the distribution of He+ in its 30.4-nm resonance line. The images reveal the details of a highly structured and dynamic entity. Comparing EUV images and selected in-situ observations has helped to validate the remote sensing measurements. The brightness in the EUV images is heavily weighted by the He+ density near the plane of the magnetic equator, but two lines of evidence emphasize that the features seen by EUV extend far from the equator, and in at least some cases reach the ionosphere. Certain features and behaviors, including shoulders, channels, notches, and plasma erosion events, appear frequently in the EUV images. These are keys to understanding the ways that electric fields in the inner magnetosphere affect the large and meso-scale distribution of plasma, and their study can elucidate the mechanisms by which the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field couple to the inner magnetosphere.

[1]  Andy J. Smith,et al.  A case study of plasma structure in the dusk sector associated with enhanced magnetospheric convection , 1992 .

[2]  N. Brice.  Bulk motion of the magnetosphere , 1967 .

[3]  A. Nishida.  Formation of plasmapause, or magnetospheric plasma knee, by the combined action of magnetospheric convection and plasma escape from the tail , 1966 .

[4]  Paul D. Craven,et al.  Global Core Plasma Model , 2000 .

[5]  R. S. Turley,et al.  The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager Investigation for the IMAGE Mission , 2000 .

[6]  J. Grebowsky.  Model study of plasmapause motion , 1970 .

[7]  J. L. Green,et al.  On the origin of kilometric continuum , 2002 .

[8]  Richard A. Wolf,et al.  Self‐consistent calculation of the motion of a sheet of ions in the magnetosphere , 1973 .

[9]  A. Nagy,et al.  Kinetic model of the ring current‐atmosphere interactions , 1997 .

[10]  D. L. Carpenter,et al.  On what ionospheric workers should know about the plasmapause‐plasmasphere , 1973 .

[11]  J. Horwitz,et al.  A statistical characterization of plasmasphere density structure and boundary locations , 1990 .

[12]  A. Nagy,et al.  Lifetime of ring current particles due to coulomb collisions in the plasmasphere , 1991 .

[13]  R. Lambour,et al.  IMF‐driven overshielding electric field and the origin of the plasmaspheric shoulder of May 24, 2000 , 2002 .

[14]  H. Matsumoto,et al.  Kilometric continuum detected by Geotail , 1999 .

[15]  Bill R. Sandel,et al.  Global dynamics of the plasmasphere and ring current during magnetic storms , 2001 .

[16]  Bodo W. Reinisch,et al.  An Overview of Results From rpi on Image , 2003 .

[17]  A. Lyle Broadfoot,et al.  Initial results from the IMAGE Extreme Ultraviolet Imager , 2001 .

[18]  Philip J. Erickson,et al.  Ionospheric signatures of plasmaspheric tails , 2002 .

[19]  R. Elphic,et al.  Quantifying Global Plasmaspheric Images With in situ Observations , 2003 .

[20]  J. Green,et al.  Views of Earth's magnetosphere with the image satellite. , 2001, Science.

[21]  M. Spasojević,et al.  Identifying the plasmapause in IMAGE EUV data using IMAGE RPI in situ steep density gradients , 2003 .

[22]  R. Anderson,et al.  CRRES observations of density cavities inside the plasmasphere , 2000 .

[23]  V. Jordanova,et al.  Modeling of the contribution of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves to stormtime ring current erosion , 2013 .

[24]  P. Reiff,et al.  IMF‐driven plasmasphere erosion of 10 July 2000 , 2003 .

[25]  A. Skinner,et al.  Extraction of ion distributions from magnetospheric ENA and EUV images , 2000 .