Plasma Sheet Behavior During Substorms

TLDR: In this paper, it was shown 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 byproduct of that fundamental process.

Abstract: 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, ie, 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

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LA-UR--63-3361
DE84 003833
TITLE
Plasma Sheet Behavior During Substorms
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PLASMA SHEET BEHAVIOR DURING SUBSTORM
.
Edwaud U. Hones, Jr.
UnLvcrsfty
of CallfornLa, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, N?l 97545
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values of
solar wind parameters at the orbit of the earth are: density
N
10/cm3; flow speed
N 450 km/see; magnetic field strength ~ 10 nano:eslas,
Thefieconstitute a particle flux
of -4.5 x 108/cm2-see, a kinesic energy flux
of roughly 1 erglrrn2-eec,
2
and a magnetic energy flux of -10-2 erg/cm -sec.
A! 1 Large-scale objects orbitfng the sun encounter this continual flow of
mn::er
and energy and, becauge of :he cohesive influence of the IUF, they can
res:rilln, locally, the solar wind’s flow and thereby store solar whd plaama
and energy In their ‘tmagne~ospheres.ri
The magnetosphere of :hoae planets
havlnR suhs:anttal intrinsic mngnc~tc fLelds (e.g., Mercury. Earth,
JupLter,

-3-
very good evidence that
it
does.
This evidence, gnimed during the past
decade,
largely from satellite measurements of partLcles, plasmas, and fields
in the outer magnetosphere, suggests very strongly that durfng “subs~orms” the
earth’s magnetosphere spont~neouely dlveeta
Lteelf of a su56tantlal portLon of
the “plasma sheet”
that e~tends across the mldplane cf
its magnetotail. In
fact it now appeara that thf6 is the basic underlying physical procesd Ln a
suhs~orrn,i.e., the magnctotall gcttlng
rld of stored plasma and energy t;,.~c
it. can no longer restra!.n.
ThLs
paper
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:he earth’s magnetic field, bombarding the upper
1980, for an excellent description of auroras and
atmosphere. (See
the development
Esther,
of our
understanding of
:hem from antiquity up to modern times.)
The International Geophysical
Year (ICY) of 1957-1958 brought globally-
organlzcd
research
efforts,
along with modern rocket
and eatelllte
Cechnologtes,
to beer on geophysics probleme
, with a strong focus on auroral
,~ndinngnctosphericresearch. Widespread networkg of all-nky cameras and
magne~oneters
were
eatahlished
to RWiy
the large-scfile space and :lme
varfa:lons of auroraa and
their a~socLated mhgnetf.c
sign~turen.
Using data
~~kilbofll
(IS64) ldcntlfied a sequence of systematic and
mIroL”al clLsplays whLch he cnlled an “aurorFIlsuhs:orm.”
Chiet
Lfc nlnng the auroral oval are lIILf!r.iiilttf2ntlyactlvatd.
It 19
I
L 1,1:
hrLght, aCLLVCB and t;pcctncularnuroL.ald~spl{.ysare seen.