Abstract We consider a qualitative model of cross-tail current flow and suggest that when magnetic reconnection begins, the current effectively flows across the plasma sheet both earthward and tailward of the disruption region near the neutral line. We show that an enhanced cross-tail current earthward of this region would thin the plasma sheet substantially due to the magnetic pinch effect often studied in laboratory plasmas. This thinning would in turn affect the drift currents even closer toward the earth. In this way, a disruption and effective diversion of the cross-tail current throughout much of the inner portion of the plasma sheet could result and intense cross-tail current localized at the inner edge of the plasma sheet would lead to a very thin current-carrying region. This would explain the very taillike field and extreme particle dropouts often seen late in substorm growth phases. When the currents cannot be further enhanced within the inner plasma sheet (and when diffuse electron precipitation has sufficiently increased ionospheric conductivities) we expect an intense (≥106 A), very rapid increase of current flow through the auroral ionosphere. This latter phase would basically constitute the substorm expansion phase.
Extreme energetic particle decreases near geostationary orbit: A manifestation of current diversion within the inner plasma sheet
Advances in Space Research ; 10 , 9 ; 131-134
1990-01-01
4 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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