Publication Date:
2018-04-24
Description:
The Naval Research Laboratory Sami3 is Also a Model of the Ionosphere (SAMI3) ionosphere/plasmasphere code is used to examine the physics of a long-lived plasmasphere plume. The May 1994 storm is simulated. Here a plasma density peak was observed in the afternoon sector by multiple spacecraft at geosynchronous orbit on each of 11 continuous days. The storm is modeled by adding a Kp-driven Volland/Stern-Maynard/Chen analytic convection potential to the self-consistent electric potential that is driven by thermosphere winds. Results are compared to measurements of the cold-ion density from the 1989-046 spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. We find that many observed features are reproduced by SAMI3 and that high-speed, field-aligned plasma flows from the ionosphere contribute significantly to the plume density. ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
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