Study of Plasma Flow Near the Earth's Plasmapause.
Abstract
The first simulation run of a magnetospheric substorm was successfully completed. The computer program was developed to simulate aspects of the behavior of the closed-field-line portion of the earth's magnetosphere, and the auroral and subauroral ionosphere, during a magnetospheric event. The program self-consistently, computes electric fields, electric currents and plasma flow velocities in these regions. The basic program has been run for several idealized cases, and various output and plotting routines have been developed. Electron-flux data and polar-cap electric-field data from the S3-2 satellite have been used to specify input for the program. Computed electric fields in the auroral zone have been compared with measurements from the S3-2 satellite, and the agreement is found to be reasonably good considering that this is our first try. Various features of the data are interpreted in terms of the model. The computed time-evolution of the particle distribution near geosynchronous orbit agrees reasonably well with what is normally observed by McIlwain and collaborators during substorms.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 28, 1977
- Accession Number
- ADA053291
Entities
People
- H. K. Hills
- M. Harel
- P. H. Reiff
- R. Wolf
Organizations
- Rice University