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Detailed Reference Information |
Wing Ho, C., Horwitz, J.L. and Moore, T.E. (1994). DE1 observations of polar O+ stream bulk parameters and comparison with a model of the centrifugally-accelerated polar wind. Geophysical Research Letters 21: doi: 10.1029/94GL02340. issn: 0094-8276. |
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A survey of bulk parameters of analyzable O+ outward streams in the midaltitude (3-4.7 RE geocentric distance) polar cap magnetosphere is obtained from measurements by the Retarding Ion Mass Spectrometer (RIMS) aboard the Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE1) spacecraft. There is wide scatter in the obtained densities, but they do display discernible trends: the average O+ density in these streams decreases from about 30 ions cm-3 at 3.5 RE to about 1 ion cm-3 at 4.6 RE. The streaming velocities are somewhat more defined, and their average increases from about 8 km s-1 at 3.5 RE to about 12 km s-1 at 4.6 RE. The outward ion flux increases by a factor of 4 with magnetic activity from Kp=2 to 5. We have further compared these observational trends with model profiles for the centrifugally-accelerated polar wind as recently described by Horwitz et al. [1994>. The large outflow velocities observed can be understood in part as centrifugally-driven by convection with ionospheric electric field magnitudes of the order 50--70 mV m-1, perhaps including plasma expansion effects. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994 |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Polar cap phenomena, Ionosphere, Polar ionosphere, Space Plasma Physics, Numerical simulation studies, Space Plasma Physics, Transport processes |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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