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Detailed Reference Information |
Matsui, H., Mukai, T., Ohtani, S., Hayashi, K., Elphic, R.C., Thomsen, M.F. and Matsumoto, H. (1999). Cold dense plasma in the outer magnetosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research 104: doi: 10.1029/1999JA900046. issn: 0148-0227. |
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Cold dense plasma (CDP) with energies less than 32 eV in the outer magnetosphere, L~10, is reported using data obtained by Geotail. We have found unexpectedly recurrent CDP in afternoon magnetic local times. CDP is often accompanied by westward flows, indicating that the regions with CDP are located outside the corotation region and the plasma is presumably convected toward the magnetopause. CDP is observed in the cases of both small and moderate geomagnetic activity. We have calculated the location of the stagnation point as a function of cross-tail potential by using a Volland-Stern-type [Volland, 1973; Stern, 1975> convection model. Stagnation point locations are variable even if the cross-tail potential or geomagnetic activity is small, which could lead to a high rate of the observation of plasmaspheric material at the Geotail orbit. However, part of the cold plasma is directly supplied by the ionosphere without passing through the plasmasphere. The number of supplied particles could be larger on the drift orbits close to the stagnation points. Finally, an average quantity of cold plasma flowing through the Geotail orbit with quasi-stable westward convection is estimated to be 3.6¿1025 ions/s with a standard deviation of 3.7¿1025 ions/s, as compared to 9.4-14¿1025 ions/s for the polar wind toward the plasma sheet. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetosphere—outer |
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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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