Plasma Sheet and Diffuse Aurora Structuring During Severe Magnetic Storms

We present analysis of comprehensive simulations of a severe magnetic storm on March 31, 2001 with the Rice Convection Model. When a time-dependent storm-time magnetic field model and time variations of the plasma sheet temperature and density are used as inputs to the model (both driven by the solar wind and IMF parameters), the inner magnetosphere is found to undergo severe perturbations, including strong ring current injection, supersonic ionospheric plasma drifts, and highly structured transport of plasma sheet particles into the ring current region. We analyze the properties of this transport in terms of interchange instability, and present signatures in the diffuse aurora that may be related to observed structuring in the optical emissions.