Fennell, J. F.,
Co-Authors: J. L. Roeder, M. Grande, C. Perry, R. Friedel*, A. Korth, S. Livi, and T. A. Fritz,
Title: The Plasma Mantle: Polar Satellite Observations,
Reference: in PHYSICS OF SPACE PLASMAS, No. 15, p 389-394, MIT Center for Theoretical Geo/Cosmo Plasma Physics, Cambridge, MA, 1998.
Reference Type: Published Journal
CEPPAD: true
CAMMICE: true
RAPID: false
Abstract:
Since launch in February 1996 the Polar satellite has made numerous traversals of the high latitude dayside magnetosphere. These traversals have covered the high altitude regions of the low latitude boundary layer (LLBL), cusp, cleft, mantle and polar cap. Often, as the Polar satellite traverses the high latitude dayside magnetosphere it leaves the soft precipitation region of the cusp or cleft and enters into the mantle plasma. There, the angular distribution of 1 to 10 keV ions changes character from a convecting near isotropic one to convecting predominantly perpendicular ions that are weekly upflowing. Sometimes the predominantly perpendicular fluxes of ions are observed throughout a the cusp, cleft, and mantle. These trapped ion signatures are relatively common and the energy of the trapped ions is generally less than 10 keV. The energy of the most poleward trapped population generally decreases with increasing latitude as is expected for the mantle plasma. The! ! ! angular distributions of the downward going < 10 keV ions have large "loss cones" indicative of a possible relatively weak mirror geometry in the magnetic field at high altitudes. The mantle ion fluxes observed on Polar show much the same flows, distributions and spatial characteristics as those observed on HEOS [Rosenbauer et al., 1975]. The composition of the ions at > 1 keV/q is predominantly solar wind as expected.
