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Effects of Convection Electric Fields on Modeled Plasmaspheric Densities and ccc TemperaturesThis paper examines the effects of convection electric fields on plasmaspheric H+, O+, He+, and N+ densities and electron and ion temperatures. These effects are studied with the aid of the Field Line Interhemispheric Plasma (FLIP) model, which has recently been extended to include the effects of ExB drifts. The FLIP model solves the continuity and momentum equations for the major ion species as well as the energy equations for ions and electrons along entire drifting flux tubes from 100 km altitude in the northern hemisphere to 100 km altitude in the southern hemisphere. Electron heating in the ionosphere and plasmasphere is provided by the solution of two-stream equations for photoelectrons. The dawn-dusk electric field imposed by the solar wind causes changes in plasmaspheric density and temperature as the plasma drifts onto flux tubes having different volumes. In an idealized convection model, outward drifts in the afternoon cause decreases in the plasmasphere density and temperature while inward drifts in the evening cause increases in plasmasphere density and temperature. In this paper we examine the effects of convection electric fields on the rate of refilling of flux tubes and investigate the hypothesis that convection electric fields are responsible for the unusually high evening electron temperatures and the post-midnight density maxima often observed in the winter ionosphere above Millstone Hill.
Document ID
19990110677
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Comfort, Richard H.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Richards, Phil G.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Liao, Jin-Hua
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Craven, Paul D.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1998
Subject Category
Plasma Physics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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