A Study of Ion Outflow as a Source of Plasma for the Magnetosphere

Spacecraft measurements beginning in the early 1970 s gave indications that the ionosphere was a contributor to the energetic particle population of the Earth s magnetosphere This surprising result ran counter to the previously accepted model that the magnetospheric plasmas, because of their higher energies, must have come from the solar wind. Indeed, the original discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts, with energies of millions of electron volts, set a strong community belief in the sun as the plasma source because of the dramatic difference in the radiation belt energy and that of the Earth s ionospheric source.