Abstract The transport of magnetospheric plasma during dynamical reconfigurations of the geomagnetic field is investigated by means of three-dimensional single particle codes. It is shown that the “tail-like” to “dipole-like” magnetic transitions which accompany the development of substorms, yield rapid injections of mid-tail (∼ 10–15 RE) ions into close L-shells. It is demonstrated that, during this transport, the guiding center is at stake depending upon particle mass and/or charge state. Particularly, for singly-charged heavy ions such as O+, the simulations demonstrate that the “dipolarisation” process goes together with intense energization (possibly a factor 1000) and pitch angle diffusion. On such basis, it is argued that the high-latitude ionospheric outflows form potential plasma sources for the ring current, owing to their location upstream of the near-Earth plasma sheet. A further examination of the storm-time trajectories reveals a clear inward boundary for the newly created energetic populations, which corresponds to the post-dipolarisation “image” of their non-adiabatic threshold in the geomagnetic tail.
A quantitative study of ion transport during substorms
Advances in Space Research ; 11 , 9 ; 171-175
1991-01-01
5 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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