High Poynting fluxes at high latitudes during magnetic storms

Huang, Cheryl

High Poynting fluxes at high latitudes during magnetic storms

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Fountain III/IV (Westin Pasadena)

Cheryl Y Huang, Air Force Research Laboratory Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM, United States, Yanshi Huang, HIT Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China, Russell Gerard Landry, University of New Mexico Main Campus, Albuquerque, TX, United States and Thomas Sotirelis, Johns Hopkins Univ, Laurel, MD, United States

Abstract:

We have selected Northern Hemisphere passes made by the DMSP spacecraft during 14 magnetic storms. Regions of high Poynting flux, defined as greater than 20 mW m^-2, have been identified based on the simultaneously observed fluxes of precipitating particles. The results show that the boundary plasma sheet is the locus of high Poynting flux in approximately half of the 279 events. The polar cap and low latitude boundary layer are each identified for 16-17% of the cases, and the remainder of the high Poynting fluxes occur in the cusp, mantle and radiation belts.

The particle precipitation which is used for boundary identification does not correlate with the Poynting flux observations, in that intense Poynting flux is not correlated with intense particle flux. There appears to be little correlation, either positive or negative. This result has consequences for modeling of energy deposition and dissipation at high latitudes.