Solar Wind - Magnetosphere - Ionosphere Coupling

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The proposed research program is directed at determining the global geometry of the open magnetosphere and its connection to the ionosphere. The program will build on much of the proposing team's prior work as well as related work of others. Four programmatic elements are: 1. analyses of IMP 8 plasma and field data to specify and document the open geometry of the tail; 2. comparisons of these results with global MHD simulations to test simulation applicability and to extend the description of the open geometry to the full magnetosphere; 3. comparisons of both observational and simulation results with appropriately constructed, multi-component superposition models to elucidate the magnetic topology of the open geometry at higher resolution than obtainable with the MHD model; and 4. extend the LLBL-ionosphere coupling model of Siscoe, Lotko, Sonnerup, and Maynard to incorporate the new geometry. A focusing objective for the stated program, to determine the global open geometry of the magnetosphere, is to ascertain explicitly the 3- dimensional geometry of the topological separatrices of the magnetic field, of which there might be several sets of distinct topological types. This will be done for various orientations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), including northward, which perhaps poses the greatest challenge. Locating these topological features relative to the geometry of the main structural elements of the magnetosphere will bear directly on answers to the following questions: Where are the sites of magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause and in the tail? How do they fit within the global geometry? What is the geometrical distribution of the open and closed regions on the 3-D magnetospheric boundary: The answer to this last question bears directly on the question of the spatial relationships between the dayside cusp, the low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL), and the plasma mantle, and on the question of whether the LLBL is open or closed.