A Study of Polar Cap Electric Potentials - a GEM Related Program

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The polar cap potential is a very important quantity in the coupling between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. It is a quantity which gives a direct measurement of plasma flow in the magnetosphere and can also be related to the energy input into this important region of the earth's geospace environment. In the past, there have only been a few studies of the correlation between the polar cap potential and the solar wind. This grant is for the following four tasks (1) assemble a large data set of polar cap electric potentials from instruments on the two Dynamic Explorer satellites, (2) determine how the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) control the polar cap potential, (3) investigate the relationship between the size of the polar cap and the total potential drop, and (4) use AE indices in combination with the polar cap potential measurements to find how the potential behaves during magnetospheric substorms.