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Detailed Reference Information
Green et al. 2004
Green, J.L., Boardsen, S., Fung, S.F., Matsumoto, H., Hashimoto, K., Anderson, R.R., Sandel, B.R. and Reinisch, B.W. (2004). Association of kilometric continuum radiation with plasmaspheric structures. Journal of Geophysical Research 109: doi: 10.1029/2003JA010093. issn: 0148-0227.

A year's worth of observations of kilometric continuum (KC) from the plasma wave instrument (PWI) on GEOTAIL and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images of the plasmasphere from IMAGE are compared. In the vast majority (~94%) of the 87 cases when simultaneous data from both spacecraft were available, KC was observed to be associated with density depletions or notch structures in the plasmasphere. From a careful analysis of 1 month of EUV data comprising 13 notch structures, only one notch structure was found in which no accompanying KC was observed when GEOTAIL was in a low-latitude position and therefore should have observed the emission if it were generated. IMAGE observations from the radio plasma imager (RPI) during passage through a plasmaspheric notch structure found that KC was generated in or very near the magnetic equator at steep gradients in density and associated with emissions in the upper hybrid resonance band as previously reported by others at lower frequencies. Statistical analysis of the KC events associated with plasmaspheric notch structures shows that the typical source region is at an equatorial radial distance of ~2.4 RE (Earth radii) in the magnetic equator and produces an emission cone that is ~40¿ in longitude and ~20¿ in latitude. These results show that a density depletion or notch structure in the plasmasphere is typically a critical condition for the generation of KC but that the notch structures do not always provide the conditions necessary for the generation of the emission.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma waves and instabilities, Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics, Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetosphere—inner, kilometric continuum, plasma waves, plasmasphere, plasmapause
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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