Dying Flow Bursts as Generators of the Substorm Current Wedge
Abstract
Many theories or conjectures exist on the driver of the substorm current wedge, e.g. rerouting of the tail current, current disruption, flow braking, vortex formation, and current sheet collapse. Magnitude, spatial scale, and temporal development of the related magnetic perturbations suggest that the generator is related to the interaction of the flow bursts with the dipolar magnetosphere after onset of reconnection in the near-Earth tail. The question remains whether it is the flow energy that feeds the wedge current or the internal energy of the arriving plasma. In this presentation I argue for the latter. The current generation is attributed to the force exerted by the dipolarized magnetic field of the flow bursts on the preceding layer of high-beta plasma after flow braking. The generator current is the grad-B current at the outer boundary of the compressed high-beta plasma layers. It needs the sequential arrival of several flow bursts to account for duration and magnitude of the ionospheric closure current.
- Publication:
-
41st COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016cosp...41E.783H