Contribution of Bursty Bulk Flows to the Global Dipolarization of the Magnetotail During an Isolated Substorm

Explicit IMF B y -Dependence of Energetic Protons and the Ring Current

The most important parameter driving the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction is the southward (B z ) component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). While the dawn-dusk (B y ) component of the IMF is also known to play an important role, its effects are usually assumed to be independent of its sign. Here we demonstrate for the first time a seasonally varying, explicit IMF B y -dependence of the ring current and Dst index. Using satellite observations and a global magnetohydrodynamic model coupled with a ring current model, we show that for a fixed level of solar wind driving the flux of energetic magnetospheric protons and the growth-rate of the ring current are greater for B y  < 0 (B y  > 0) than for B y  > 0 (B y  < 0) in Northern Hemisphere summer (winter). While the physical mechanism of this explicit B y -effect is not yet fully understood, our results suggest that IMF B y modulates magnetospheric convection and plasma transport in the inner magnetosphere.

Magnetotail Ion Structuring by Kinetic Ballooning-Interchange Instability

By combining three-probe THEMIS observations and 3-D Particle-in-Cell simulations, we identify key structures on the ion gyroradius scale that occur in connection with ballooning-interchange instability heads in the Earth's magnetotail. The mesoscale structures occur at sites of strong ion velocity shear and vorticity where the thermal ion Larmor radius is about half of the width of the head. Finer structures occur at the smaller scales characterizing the wavelength of the electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves generated at the heads. These two processes act to erode and thin the current sheet, thereby forming a local magnetotail configuration that is favorable for reconnection.

Modeling Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at the High-Latitude Boundary Layer in a Global Magnetosphere Simulation

The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at the magnetospheric boundary plays a crucial role in solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, particle entry, and energization. The full extent of its impact has remained an open question due, in part, to global models without sufficient resolution to capture waves at higher latitudes. Using global magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we investigate an event when the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission observed periodic low-frequency waves at the dawn-flank, high-latitude boundary layer. We show the layer to be unstable, even though the slow solar wind with the draped interplanetary magnetic field is seemingly unfavorable for wave generation. The simulated velocity shear at the boundary is thin ( ∼ 0.65 R E ) and requires commensurately high spatial resolution. These results, together with MMS observations, confirm for the first time in fully three-dimensional global geometry that KH waves can grow in this region and thus can be an important process for energetic particle acceleration, dynamics, and transport.

Investigating the Link Between Outer Radiation Belt Losses and Energetic Electron Escape at the Magnetopause: A Case Study Using Multi-Mission Observations and Simulations

Radiation belt flux dropout events are sudden and often significant reductions in high-energy electrons from Earth's outer radiation belts. These losses are theorized to be due to interactions with the dayside magnetopause and possibly connected to observations of escaping magnetospheric particles. This study focuses on radiation belt losses during a moderate-strength, nonstorm dropout event on November 21, 2016. The potential loss mechanisms and the linkage to dayside escape are investigated using combined energetic electron observations throughout the dayside magnetosphere from the Magnetospheric Multiscale and Van Allen Probes spacecraft along with global magnetohydrodynamic and test particle simulations. In particular, this nonstorm-time event simplifies the magnetospheric conditions and removes ambiguity in the interpretation of results, allowing focus on subsequent losses from enhanced outward radial transport that can occur after initial compression and relaxation of the magnetopause boundary. The evolution of measured phase space density profiles suggest a total loss of approximately 60% of the initial radiation belt content during the event. Together the in situ observations and high-resolution simulations help to characterize the loss by bounding the following parameters: (a) the duration of the loss, (b) the relative distribution of losses and surface area of the magnetopause over which loss occurs, and (c) the escaping flux (i.e., loss) rate across the magnetopause. In particular, this study is able to estimate the surface area of loss to less than 2.9 × 106 RE 2 and the duration of loss to greater than 6 h, while also demonstrating the magnetic local time-dependence of the escaping flux and energy spectrum.

Network community structure of substorms using SuperMAG magnetometers

Geomagnetic substorms are a global magnetospheric reconfiguration, during which energy is abruptly transported to the ionosphere. Central to this are the auroral electrojets, large-scale ionospheric currents that are part of a larger three-dimensional system, the substorm current wedge. Many, often conflicting, magnetospheric reconfiguration scenarios have been proposed to describe the substorm current wedge evolution and structure. SuperMAG is a worldwide collaboration providing easy access to ground based magnetometer data. Here we show application of techniques from network science to analyze data from 137 SuperMAG ground-based magnetometers. We calculate a time-varying directed network and perform community detection on the network, identifying locally dense groups of connections. Analysis of 41 substorms exhibit robust structural change from many small, uncorrelated current systems before substorm onset, to a large spatially-extended coherent system, approximately 10 minutes after onset. We interpret this as strong indication that the auroral electrojet system during substorm expansions is inherently a large-scale phenomenon and is not solely due to many meso-scale wedgelets.

Dynamic Properties of Particle Injections Inside Geosynchronous Orbit: A Multisatellite Case Study

Four closely located satellites at and inside geosynchronous orbit (GEO) provided a great opportunity to study the dynamical evolution and spatial scale of premidnight energetic particle injections inside GEO during a moderate substorm on 23 December 2016. Just following the substorm onset, the four spacecraft, a LANL satellite at GEO, the two Van Allen Probes (also called "RBSP") at ~5.8 R E, and a THEMIS satellite at ~5.3 R E, observed substorm-related particle injections and local dipolarizations near the central meridian (~22 MLT) of a wedge-like current system. The large-scale evolution of the electron and ion (H, He, and O) injections was almost identical at the two RBSP spacecraft with ~0.5 R E apart. However, the initial short-timescale particle injections exhibited a striking difference between RBSP-A and -B: RBSP-B observed an energy dispersionless injection which occurred concurrently with a transient, strong dipolarization front (DF) with a peak-to-peak amplitude of ~25 nT over ~25 s; RBSP-A measured a dispersed/weaker injection with no corresponding DF. The spatiotemporally localized DF was accompanied by an impulsive, westward electric field (~20 mV m-1). The fast, impulsive E × B drift caused the radial transport of the electron and ion injection regions from GEO to ~5.8 R E. The penetrating DF fields significantly altered the rapid energy- and pitch angle-dependent flux changes of the electrons and the H and He ions inside GEO. Such flux distributions could reflect the transient DF-related particle acceleration and/or transport processes occurring inside GEO. In contrast, O ions were little affected by the DF fields.

Ballooning-Interchange Instability in the Near-Earth Plasma Sheet and Auroral Beads: Global Magnetospheric Modeling at the Limit of the MHD Approximation

Explosive magnetotail activity has long been understood in the context of its auroral manifestations. While global models have been used to interpret and understand many magnetospheric processes, the temporal and spatial scales of some auroral forms have been inaccessible to global modeling creating a gulf between observational and theoretical studies of these phenomena. We present here an important step toward bridging this gulf using a newly developed global magnetosphere-ionosphere model with resolution capturing ≲ 30 km azimuthal scales in the auroral zone. In a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of the growth phase of a synthetic substorm, we find the self-consistent formation and destabilization of localized magnetic field minima in the near-Earth magnetotail. We demonstrate that this destabilization is due to ballooning-interchange instability which drives earthward entropy bubbles with embedded magnetic fronts. Finally, we show that these bubbles create localized field-aligned current structures that manifest in the ionosphere with properties matching observed auroral beads.

Relative contributions of large-scale and wedgelet currents in the substorm current wedge

We examined how much large-scale and localized upward and downward currents contribute to the substorm current wedge (SCW), and how they evolve over time, using the THEMIS all-sky imagers (ASIs) and ground magnetometers. One type of events is dominated by a single large-scale wedge, with upward currents over the surge and broad downward currents poleward-eastward of the surge. The other type of events is a composite of large-scale wedge and wedgelets associated with streamers, with each wedgelet having comparable intensity to the large-scale wedge currents. Among 17 auroral substorms with wide ASI coverage, the composite current type is more frequent than the single large-scale wedge type. The dawn-dusk size of each wedgelet is ~ 600 km in the ionosphere (~ 3.2 R _E in the magnetotail, comparable to the flow channel size). We suggest that substorms have more than one type of SCW, and the composite current type is more frequent.