Abstract
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 29,
1623,
4 PP., 2002
doi:10.1029/2002GL015067
Ionospheric signatures of plasmaspheric tails
MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, Massachusetts, USA
MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, Massachusetts, USA
MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts, USA
Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom AFB, Massachusetts, USA
We make direct comparisons between GPS maps of total electron content (TEC) over the North American continent, Millstone Hill radar observations of storm enhanced density, and low and high-altitude satellite measurements of the perturbation of the outer plasmasphere during the March 31, 2001 geomagnetic storm. We find that storm enhanced density (SED) and plumes of greatly-elevated TEC are associated with the erosion of the outer plasmasphere by strong sub-auroral polarization electric fields. The SED/TEC plumes identified at low altitude map closely onto the magnetospheric determination of the boundaries of the plasmapause and plasmaspheric tail determined by EUV imaging from the IMAGE spacecraft. Characteristics of the SED/TEC plumes/tails for the March 31, 2001 event are: TEC ∼ 100 TECu; F-region sunward velocity ∼1000 m/s; sunward flux ∼5*1024 ions s−1; total transport to dayside magnetopause/merging region (3-hr event) ∼5*1028 ions.
Published 2 July 2002.
Citation: (2002), Ionospheric signatures of plasmaspheric tails, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29(13), 1623, doi:10.1029/2002GL015067.
Cited By
