Locating the Magnetospheric Ring Current,
Abstract
It is the purpose of the note to point out that 10-100 KeV protons, which dominate ring current energetics, have two preferred regions of cyclotron instability, and consequently loss, which serve as stable trapping boundaries for ring current protons. The pertinent electromagnetic ion cyclotron instability therefore limits the ring current location, and, using the empirical notion that within the stable region the energy density does not exceed the geomagnetic energy density, also the ring current energy density, and therefore, the main phase depression. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0755484
Entities
People
- C. F. Kennel
- Richard M. Thorne
Organizations
- University of California, Los Angeles