Investigation of the Transport of Solar Ions Through the Earth's Magnetosphere

By National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The objective of this study has been to infer, by statistical means, the most probable mode of entry of solar wind plasma into Earth's magnetotail, using a particular set of archived data from the Lockheed Plasma Composition Experiment on the International Sun-Earth Explorer One (ISEE-1) satellite, jointly sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) in the 1970's and 80's. Despite their considerable age, the Lockheed ISEE-1 data are still, at the time of this report, the only substantial ion composition data in the sub-keV to keV energy range available from the magnetotail beyond 9 R(sub E), because of various technical problems with ion mass spectrometers on later missions, and are therefore a unique source of information about the mixing of solar and terrestrial origin plasmas in the tail, within the ISEE-1 apogee of almost 23 R(sub E). The entire set of archived data used in this study, covering the 4.5 years of operation of the instrument and comprising not only tail measurements but also data from the inner magnetosphere as well as data from outside the magnetopause, is now available to the public via the WorldWideWeb at the address: http: //cis.spasci.com/ISEE_ions The fundamental assumption of this and other studies of magnetosphere ion composition is that He]+ and O+ ions are virtually certain "tags" of solar and terrestrial origins, respectively. This is an assumption with strong theoretical basis and it is corroborated by observational evidence, including the often substantial differences between the velocity distribution functions of those two species. The H+ ions can have a dual origin, in principle, but the close resemblance in the ISEE-1 data between the dynamics of H+ and He++ ions indicates a predominantly solar origin of the H+ ions in the tail, at least. By the same token, the usually minor He+ ions are probably almost entirely of terrestrial origin, because of their similarit

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1723853925
• ISBN13: 9781723853920
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 60 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 11.0"