Plasmasphere and its interaction with the ring current

✍ Scribed by K. I. Gringauz

• Book ID: 104652190
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 727 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-6308
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00175281

✦ Synopsis

In the last few years (after 1976) new instruments have been used for plasmaspheric studies ('mutual-impedance' probe, ion energy-mass spectrometers) which have led to new results. The existence in the plasmasphere of previously unknown ions (He 2 +, 02 § ) was revealed and the pitch-angle distributions of ions with energies 10-20 eY were measured. New measurements confirmed the existence of a 'hot' ('warm') zone in the outer plasmasphere and of a midday-midnight asymmetry of the plasmasphere. The source of outer plasmasphere heating is apparently the ring-current decay; electrons are heated less than ions. The plasmasphere is not only the medium of ring current decay, but it appears that it is one of the ring-current ion sources.