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Newell et al. 2004
Newell, P.T., Ruohoniemi, J.M. and Meng, C.-I. (2004). Maps of precipitation by source region, binned by IMF, with inertial convection streamlines. Journal of Geophysical Research 109. doi: 10.1029/2004JA010499. issn: 0148-0227.

We present maps of ionospheric precipitation regions, based on 11 years of DMSP particle data, binned by the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), with superposed SuperDARN convection streamlines gathered under similar conditions. The convection patterns are transformed into an inertial coordinate system. The maps, which include both the nightside and dayside, are created in a fully automated fashion, with, for example, the cusp centered at its centroid latitude for each half hour bin of MLT, with a latitudinal width equal to the statistical difference between the poleward and equatorward edges. The mantle asymmetry about noon does not fit the pattern expected from simple theoretical considerations (namely, that the mantle should be thicker postnoon for positive By in the Northern Hemisphere). The mantle is appreciably thicker prenoon than postnoon, especially for positive By but also even for negative By. This asymmetry matches the SuperDARN convection flows, in which, irrespective of the sign of By, most of the conversion of closed field lines to open occurs prenoon. Quantitatively expressed, for southward IMF, the potential encompassed by flux crossing the open-closed boundary prenoon (0600--1200 MLT) exceeds that for postnoon (1200--1800 MLT) by 30 kV to 15 kV for By > 3 nT and by 30 kV to 20 kV for By 3 nT, 31 kV reconnects from 1800 to 2400 MLT, but only 14 kV reconnects from 0000 to 06000 MLT. The convection reversal boundary (CRB) consistently coincides with the nightside open-closed particle boundary (OCB). On the dayside, the CRB lies equatorward (poleward) of the OCB in the postnoon (prenoon) sector for By 0). This shift is consistent with the effects of an interhemispheric current produced by the partial penetration of the IMF By into the frontside magnetosphere.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Energetic particles, precipitating, Ionosphere, Plasma convection, Ionosphere, Particle precipitation, Ionosphere, Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions, precipitation, convection, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, map, auroral oval
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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