The Influence of the Solar Cycle on Plasmasphere Refilling

Abstract:

During refilling, ionospheric plasma streams into the inner magnetosphere from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Plasmasphere refilling rates depend on both the ionospheric sources and on the thermalization of streaming ions. We use the NRL SAMI3 ionosphere/plasmasphere code[1] coupled to the NRLMSIS empirical atmosphere model and the HWM14 empirical wind model, to simulate H+, He+ and O+ populations in the plasmasphere. The SAMI3 ionosphere code includes 7 ion species (H+, He+, O+, N+, O2+, N2+, NO+), each treated as a separate fluid, with temperature equations being solved for H+, He+, O+ and e. Measurements show that refilling rates decrease with increasing solar activity, an effect reproduced by SAMI3 and its two-dimensional cousin, SAMI2.

We find that the refilling rate and the resulting the plasmasphere electron content are sensitive to the thermospheric composition and temperature, as well as photoelectron heating and photoproduction rates. Depending on conditions, simulations suggest that the plasmaspheric contribution to the total electron content can either increase or decrease with solar activity, as represented by the daily and 81-day-average F10.7 indices.

[1] Huba, J. and J. Krall, 2013, ``Modeling the plasmasphere with SAMI3'', Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 6--10, doi:10.1029/2012GL054300

Research supported by NRL base funds and the NASA HSR program.