Field-aligned Electron Density Measurements and Comparison with Diffusive Equilibrium Models

The diffusive equilibrium model describes the electron and ion densities along the magnetic field line in the plasmasphere and has been widely used in, for example, ray tracing and pitch-angle scattering calculations. It is based on the hydrostatic equilibrium with the electrostatic force that acts on ions and electrons along geomagnetic field lines while there is actually no motion or diffusion of the plasma involved. The model requires multiple input parameters: electron density and ion composition (H+, He+, O+) at a base level for a magnetic field line in the ionosphere, and the (electron or ion) temperature in the plasmasphere. It has been recognized that these input parameters have to be flexible from one field line to another so that the model output does not contradict some known observed relationship. However, while the flexibility provides the possibility to fit any individual observed density distribution which is measured across many different field lines, the model prediction becomes questionable along a single field line. Since the plasma density measurements along a single field line were not available until recently, the validity of the diffusive equilibrium models has not been verified independently. This study is to investigate both qualitatively and quantitatively whether the fundamental functional form of the diffusive equilibrium model can be useful and consistent with a large database of field-aligned electron density distributions from the radio plasma imager (RPI) instrument onboard the IMAGE satellite.