Parallell Current in the Plasma Sheet

Techniques to create long term averaged three dimensional data based models of the plasma sheet have been developed. The models give the x, y, z dependence of many plasma and field parameters in the -30< x < {R_E} region that was surveyed by the Geotail satellite. The application described in this report is a study of parallel electric currents. The average current is obtained by taking ∇ x B. The parallel current is evaluated along a number of magnetic field lines. A series of models can be made by keeping only data that meets certain conditions. One series of four models has the IMF pointing north, south, east, and west. A comparison of the models n such a series can be used to study the structure of average region 1 currents within the plasma sheet.