Magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling associated with magnetospheric ion beams
Abstract
Recent Cluster studies reported properties of multiple energy-dispersed ion structures in the plasma sheet boundary layer at 4-5 Re using for the first time multiple spacecraft The ion structures showed a complex fine structure with several beamlets Here we report other particle and field characteristics that were associated with these dispersed ion structures and their sub-structure and that created a rich phenomenology in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling The observations suggest a causal relationship between the magnetospheric ion beams acceleration and heating of outflowing ionospheric ions H O counter-streaming low-energetic electrons plasma waves field-aligned currents Alfven waves and possibly the aurora
- Publication:
-
36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006cosp...36.2452K