IMF dependence of energetic oxygen and hydrogen ion distributions in the near-Earth magnetosphere

Luo, H.; Kronberg, E. A. ; Nykyri, K.; Trattner, K. J.; Daly, P. W.; Chen, G. X.; Du, A. M. und Ge, Y. S. (2017): IMF dependence of energetic oxygen and hydrogen ion distributions in the near-Earth magnetosphere. In: Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics, Vol. 122, No. 5: pp. 5168-5180

Abstract

Energetic ion distributions in the near-Earth plasma sheet can provide important information for understanding the entry of ions into the magnetosphere and their transportation, acceleration, and losses in the near-Earth region. In this study, 11 years of energetic proton and oxygen observations (> similar to 274 keV) from Cluster/Research with Adaptive Particle Imaging Detectors were used to statistically study the energetic ion distributions in the near-Earth region. The dawn-dusk asymmetries of the distributions in three different regions (dayside magnetosphere, near-Earth nightside plasma sheet, and tail plasma sheet) are examined in Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The results show that the energetic ion distributions are influenced by the dawn-dusk interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) direction. The enhancement of ion intensity largely correlates with the location of the magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause. The results imply that substorm-related acceleration processes in the magnetotail are not the only source of energetic ions in the dayside and the near-Earth magnetosphere. Energetic ions delivered through reconnection at the magnetopause significantly affect the energetic ion population in the magnetosphere. We also believe that the influence of the dawn-dusk IMF direction should not be neglected in models of the particle population in the magnetosphere.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Geosciences > Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Subjects: 500 Science > 550 Earth sciences and geology
• ISSN: 2169-9380
• Language: English