Dynamic plasmapause model based on THEMIS measurements

Abstract:

We will present a dynamic plasmapause location model established based on five years of THEMIS measurements from 2009 to 2013. In total, 5878 plasmapause crossing events are identified, sufficiently covering all 24 Magnetic Local Time (MLT) sectors. Based on this plasmapause crossing database, we investigate the correlations between plasmapause locations with solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices. Input parameters for the best fits are obtained for different MLT sectors and finally we choose five input parameters to build a plasmapause location model, including five-minute-averaged SYM-H, AL and AU indices as well as hourly-averaged AE and Kp indices. An out-of-sample comparison on the evolution of the plasmapause is shown during April 2001 magnetic storm, demonstrating good agreement between model results and observations. Two major advantages are achieved by this model. First, this model provides plasmapause locations at 24 MLT sectors, still providing good consistency with observations. Second, this model is able to reproduce dynamic variations of plasmapause in the time scale as short as five minutes.