Plasma sheet behavior during substorms
Auroral or magnetic substorms are periods of enhanced auroral and geomagnetic activity lasting one to a few hours that signify increased dissipation of energy from the magnetosphere to the earth. Data acquired during the past decade from satellites in the near-earth sector of the magnetotail have suggested that during a substorm part of the plasma sheet is severed from earth by magnetic reconnection, forming a plasmoid, i.e., a body of plasma and closed magnetic loops, that flows out of the tail into the solar wind, thus returning plasma and energy that have earlier been accumulated from the solar wind. Very recently this picture has been dramatically confirmed by observations, with the ISEE 3 spacecraft in the magnetotail 220 R/sub E/ from earth, of plasmoids passing that location in clear delayed response to substorms. It now appears that plasmoid release is a fundamental process whereby the magnetosphere gives up excess stored energy and plasma, much like comets are seen to do, and that the phenomena of the substorm seen at earth are a by-product of that fundamental process.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 5389125
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-83-3361; CONF-8310229-5; ON: DE84003833
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Chapman conference on magnetic reconnection, Los Alamos, NM, USA, 3 Oct 1983
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
AURORAE
MAGNETIC STORMS
ELECTRON DENSITY
ENERGY TRANSFER
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GEOMAGNETIC FIELD
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MAGNETOSPHERE
MAGNETOTAIL
PLASMA SHEET
SOLAR WIND
DATA
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
INFORMATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NUMERICAL DATA
SOLAR ACTIVITY
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