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Detailed Reference Information
Wolf et al. 2006
Wolf, R.A., Kumar, V., Toffoletto, F.R., Erickson, G.M., Savoie, A.M., Chen, C.X. and Lemon, C.L. (2006). Estimating local plasma sheet PV5/3 from single-spacecraft measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: doi: 10.1029/2006JA012010. issn: 0148-0227.

The theory of plasma transport in Earth's plasma sheet depends critically on the entropy parameter PV 5/3, where P is particle pressure and V is the volume of a closed flux tube containing one unit of magnetic flux. Theory suggests that earthward moving flow bursts that inject plasma into the inner magnetosphere consist of flux tubes that have PV 5/3 values that are lower than those of neighboring slow-moving flux tubes. However, there is no way to measure flux tube volume from one spacecraft or a small number of spacecraft. We propose a formula for estimating local PV 5/3 from a single spacecraft in the plasma sheet based on a simple two-dimensional analytic model of plasma in force equilibrium, with some parameters set from local measurements at a spacecraft and other parameters set to fit a series of equilibrated Tsyganenko models. To gain an idea of the expected error, the resulting formula is then tested against various relaxed Tsyganenko models, an equilibrium magnetic field/plasma model with a depleted channel and also a thin-filament MHD calculation. The formula is used to estimate the entropy parameter of flux tubes injected in two substorms, using spacecraft measurements near X = -10 RE in the central plasma sheet.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics, Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetotail, Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma sheet, Magnetospheric Physics, Substorms
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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