Theoretical and Observational Studies of the Ionosphere- Plasmasphere-Ring Current System

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This project continues studying the transport and deposition of energy in the ring current and underlying ionosphere, including (1) the contribution of magnetotail currents to the Dst index, (2) the importance of superdense plasma sheets to the formation of the most intense ring currents, (3) the relationship between energy input into the inner magnetosphere and upstream solar wind density, (4) the physical processes producing intense midlatitude ion precipitation during large magnetic storms, and the role of this precipitation in ring current decay, (5) the association between stretched magnetic field lines, violation of the first adiabatic invariant and intense subauroral ion precipitation during major storms, (6) the effects of outflow at the dayside magnetopause on ring current energy balance during the main phases of large storms, (7) the impact of electromagnetic ion cyclotron wave interactions in producing precipitation loss from the ring current, redistributing energy between ring current ion species and channeling ring current energy into the thermal populations of the inner magnetosphere, and (8) the major sources and sinks of suprathermal ion populations in the inner magnetosphere, their distribution in L value and local time, their relationship to magnetic storms and to the heating of thermal ions during disturbed conditions. The PI will investigate these fundamental physical processes, emphasizing the coupling of ring current energy into the underlying ionosphere by heat and particle fluxes, and the affect of changing solar wind and magnetospheric conditions on this coupling.