FG: Self-Consistent Inner Magnetospheric Modeling

Dates: 2020 –
Leaders: Cristian Ferradas (cristian.ferradasalva at nasa.gov), NASA Goddard, Qianli Ma (qma at bu.edu), Boston University, Chao Yue (yuechao at pku.edu.cn), Peking University, Sam Bingham (sam.bingham at jhuapl.edu), JHU/APL, Jacob Bortnik (jbortnik at atmos.ucla.edu), UCLA
Research Area: Inner Magnetosphere, M-I coupling

Topic Description

The terrestrial ring current is comprised primarily of protons, oxygen, and electrons from a few keV to several hundred keV and plays an important role in regulating the energy density and field configuration of the magnetosphere. The storm time ring current is formed by particles, originally from the solar wind and the ionosphere, that are injected into the inner magnetosphere due to changes in the electric and magnetic fields and the associated enhanced magnetospheric convection. The instability of the particles in the ring current provides the free energy of various waves, (e.g., EMIC, magnetosonic, and chorus waves) which play important roles in the dynamic evolution of the inner magnetosphere through wave-particle interactions. For example, the temperature anisotropy of tens of keV electrons generates whistler-mode chorus waves, which can drive pitch angle scattering and precipitation. The subsequent precipitation to the ionosphere modifies the ionospheric conductance, which in turn has feedback effects in the inner magnetosphere through changes to the electric potential pattern. Despite recent advances in ring current modeling, current models are not able to fully capture the dynamics of the ring current and the broader inner magnetosphere during disturbed times in a self-consistent manner. Understanding the coupling processes between the ring current and other plasma populations in the inner magnetosphere is crucial to self-consistent modeling. Our focus group aims to improve the physical understanding and modeling of the ring current interactions with and feedback from other populations (e.g., plasmasphere, radiation belts, and ionosphere), through theoretical studies, numerical modeling, and observations from satellite and ground-based missions.

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