Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources
Ring Currents and Internal Plasma Sources
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环流和内部等离子体源
DOI：
10.1023/a:1005264907107
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发表时间：
2001
影响因子：
10.3
通讯作者：
C. Pollock
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Moore;M. Chandler;M. Fok;B. Giles;D. Delcourt;J. Horwitz;C. Pollock
在磁层热等离子体中发现了地球上的O+和其他重离子，再加上电离层高能外流与地磁活动的联系，得出的结论是，地磁活动的增加是电离层等离子体充满磁层的原因。最近发现，电离层重离子等离子体外流的一个主要来源是响应于日冕物质抛射对向阳面电离层的最早撞击。因此，在磁暴的初始阶段，电离层外流迅速开始大量增加，并在这种磁暴的主要阶段发展过程中已经存在。我们假设，增强的内部等离子体源实际上支持从亚暴增强极光风暴时间环电流发展在内磁层的过渡。其他已知有环电流等离子体的行星也有大量的内部等离子体来源，特别是木星和土星。有一颗行星的磁层很小，但内部的等离子体来源很少，这就是水星。观测表明水星有亚暴，但关于行星磁暴的可能性是模糊的。信使号前往水星的使命应该为我们的假设提供一个有趣的测试。如果水星的内部等离子体源像目前认为的那样小，那么它最多应该支持一个适度的环电流。如果得到证实，这一假设将支持一个一般性的结论，即磁层膨胀反应是具有大量内部等离子体源的磁层的一个特征。我们定量地定义这个假设，并提出它作为一个问题，在比较磁层。
The discovery of terrestrial O+ and other heavy ions in magnetospheric hot plasmas, combined with the association of energetic ionospheric outflows with geomagnetic activity, led to the conclusion that increasing geomagnetic activity is responsible for filling the magnetosphere with ionospheric plasma. Recently it has been discovered that a major source of ionospheric heavy ion plasma outflow is responsive to the earliest impact of coronal mass ejecta upon the dayside ionosphere. Thus a large increase in ionospheric outflows begins promptly during the initial phase of geomagnetic storms, and is already present during the main phase development of such storms. We hypothesize that enhancement of the internal source of plasma actually supports the transition from substorm enhancements of aurora to storm-time ring current development in the inner magnetosphere. Other planets known to have ring current-like plasmas also have substantial internal sources of plasma, notably Jupiter and Saturn. One planet having a small magnetosphere, but very little internal source of plasma, is Mercury. Observations suggest that Mercury has substorms, but are ambiguous with regard to the possibility of magnetic storms of the planet. The Messenger mission to Mercury should provide an interesting test of our hypothesis. Mercury should support at most a modest ring current if its internal plasma source is as small as is currently believed. If substantiated, this hypothesis would support a general conclusion that the magnetospheric inflationary response is a characteristic of magnetospheres with substantial internal plasma sources. We quantitatively define this hypothesis and pose it as a problem in comparative magnetospheres.