Fluid Transport Simulation on Plasmaspheric Density Profiles Observed by IMAGE RPI

We simulate the field line plasma density profiles observed by the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) on board the IMAGE satellite for plasmasphere L-shells L = 2.5 - 3.3, using a field line inter-hemispheric plasma (FLIP) model. The FLIP model is time-dependent one-dimensional model along a closed dipolar flux tube from 80 km altitude in the northern hemisphere to 80 km altitude in the southern hemisphere. The model solves for various ion (O⁺, H⁺, He⁺) densities, field aligned velocities and their temperatures and electron temperatures in the ionosphere and plasmasphere. The IMAGE RPI remotely measures plasma densities along the geomagnetic field lines crossed by the IMAGE by broadcasting a sweep of radio wave signals from 3 kHz to 3MHz. The simulation results are compared with observations and discussed.