Bibliography

Quantifying the Impact of Dynamic Storm-Time Exospheric Density on Plasmaspheric Refilling

As soon as the outer plasmasphere gets eroded during geomagnetic storms, the greatly depleted plasmasphere is replenished by cold, dense plasma from the ionosphere. A strong correlation has been revealed between plasmaspheric refilling rates and ambient densities in the topside ionosphere and exosphere, particularly that of atomic hydrogen (H). Although measurements of H airglow emission at plasmaspheric altitudes exhibit storm-time response, temporally static distributions have typically been assumed in the H density in plasmasphere modeling. In this presentation, we evaluate the impact of a realistic distribution of the dynamic H density on the plasmaspheric refilling rate during the geomagnetic storm on March 17, 2013. The temporal and spatial evolution of the plasmaspheric density is calculated by using the Ionosphere-Plasmasphere Electrodynamics (IPE) model, which is driven by a global, 3-D, and time-dependent H density distribution reconstructed from the exospheric remote sensing measurements by NASA’s TWINS and TIMED missions. We quantify the spatial and temporal scales of the refilling rate and its correlation with H densities.

Waldrop, Lara; Cucho-Padin, Gonzalo; site, this; Maruyama, Naomi; site, this;

Published by: Earth and Space Science Open Archive ESSOAr      Published on: jan

YEAR: 2021     DOI: 10.1002/essoar.10505771.1

Atmospheric Sciences; Atmospheric Sciences / Magnetospheric Particles

Understanding the role of exospheric density in the ring current recovery rate

Atomic Hydrogen (H) is the most abundant constituent of the terrestrial exosphere. Its charge exchange interaction with ring current ions (H+ and O+) serves to dissipate magnetospheric energy during geomagnetic storms, resulting in the generation of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). Determination of ring current ion distributions through modeling depends critically on the specification of the exospheric H density distribution. Furthermore, theoretical studies have demonstrated that ring current recovery rate after the storm onset directly correlates with the H density. Although measurements of H airglow emission at altitudes [3,6] Re exhibit storm-time variations, the H density distributions used in ring current modeling are typically assumed to be temporally static during storms. In this presentation, we will describe the temporal and spatial evolution of ring current ion densities in response to a realistically dynamic exospheric H density distribution using the Comprehensive Inner Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Model (CIMI). The exospheric densities used as input to the model are fully data-driven, derived as global, 3D, and time-dependent tomographic reconstructions of H emission data acquired from Lyman-alpha detectors onboard the NASA TWINS satellites during the geomagnetic storm that occurred on March 17, 2013. We will examine modeled ring current recovery rates using both dynamic and static reconstructions and evaluate the impact of realistic storm-time exospheric variability on the simulations.

Cucho-Padin, Gonzalo; site, this; Ferradas, Cristian; Waldrop, Lara; Fok, Mei-Ching; site, this;

Published by: Earth and Space Science Open Archive ESSOAr      Published on: jan

YEAR: 2021     DOI: 10.1002/essoar.10505770.1

Atmospheric Sciences; Atmospheric Sciences / Magnetospheric Particles

Time-Dependent Response of the Terrestrial Exosphere to a Geomagnetic Storm

Recent observations of significant enhancements in exospheric hydrogen (H) emission in response to geomagnetic storms have been difficult to interpret in terms of the evolution of the underlying global, 3-D exospheric structure. In this letter, we report the first measurement of the timescales and spatial gradients associated with the exospheric response to a geomagnetic storm, which we derive from a novel, time-dependent tomographic analysis of H emission data. We find that global H density at 3 R_E begins to rise promptly, by \~15\%, after storm onset and that this perturbation appears to propagate outward with an effective speed of \~60\ m/s, a response that may be associated with enhanced thermospheric temperature and vertical neutral wind. This effective upwelling has significant implications for atmospheric escape as well as for charge exchange reaction rates, which drive important space weather effects such as plasmaspheric refilling and ring current decay.

Cucho-Padin, Gonzalo; Waldrop, Lara;

Published by: Geophysical Research Letters      Published on: 09/2019

YEAR: 2019     DOI: 10.1029/2019GL084327