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The Tordo 1 polar cusp barium plasma injection experimentIn January 1975, two barium plasma injection experiments were carried out with rockets launched into the upper atmosphere where field lines from the dayside cusp region intersect the ionosphere. The Tordo 1 experiment took place near the beginning of a worldwide magnetic storm. It became a polar cap experiment almost immediately as convection perpendicular to the magnetic field moved the fluorescent plasma jet away from the cusp across the polar cap in an antisunward direction. Convection across the polar cap with an average velocity of more than 1 km/s was observed for nearly 40 min until the barium flux tubes encountered large electron fields associated with a poleward bulge of the auroral oval near Greenland. Prior to the encounter with the aurora near Greenland there is evidence of upward acceleration of the barium ions while they were in the polar cap. The three-dimensional observations of the plasma orientation and motion give an insight into convection from the cusp region across the polar cap, the orientation of the polar cap magnetic field lines out to several earth radii, the causes of polar cap magnetic perturbations, and parallel acceleration processes.
Document ID
19780050651
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Wescott, E. M.
(Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Stenbaek-Nielsen, H. C.
(Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Davis, T. N.
(Alaska, University Fairbanks, Alaska, United States)
Jeffries, R. A.
(Alaska Univ. Fairbanks, AK, United States)
Roach, W. H.
(California, University Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, N. Mex., United States)
Date Acquired
August 9, 2013
Publication Date
April 1, 1978
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 83
Subject Category
Geophysics
Accession Number
78A34560
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NGR-02-001-087
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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