| 1. |
- Schillings, Audrey, et al.
(författare)
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Earth’s O+ Outflow and Escape during Various Solar Wind Conditions
- 2020
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ion outflow at Earth is studied since several decades and is important for the global atmospheric evolution. Over the years, spacecraft and technology improved leading to new studies and breakthrough in the field. With different mechanisms to gain energy and velocity such as field-aligned acceleration, centrifugal acceleration and transversal heating, a large amount of ions becomes gravitationally untrapped above the ionosphere. While some of these ions may enter the plasma sheet and partially be redirected towards Earth, majority of these ions reaches the high-latitude boundary region, such as the plasma mantle and are lost into the solar wind. We examined this phenomenon using Cluster European Spacecraft that covers these high-latitude regions. Here, we studied the influence of solar wind conditions on O+ outflow and escape during 7 years of observations (2001 to 2007). We found that O+ outflow is exponentially correlated with enhanced geomagnetic activity (Kp index) as well as with solar wind dynamic pressure and IMF. Under undisturbed magnetospheric conditions, the O+ outflow is typically 1012.5 m-2s-1 while it reaches 1014 m-2s-1 during major geomagnetic storms. Additionally, tracing (forward in time) about 25000 O+ ions initially observed in the plasma mantle showed that 98% of these ions escape directly through the magnetopause whereas only a few escape through the distant tail. In summary, the more disturbed the magnetosphere is, the more ion outflow and escape is observed.
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| 2. |
- Schillings, Audrey, et al.
(författare)
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O+ Escape During the Extreme Space Weather Event of 4–10 September 2017
- 2018
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Ingår i: Space Weather. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 1542-7390. ; 16:9, s. 1363-1376
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have investigated the consequences of extreme space weather on ion outflow from the polar ionosphere by analyzing the solar storm that occurred early September 2017, causing a severe geomagnetic storm. Several X-flares and coronal mass ejections were observed between 4 and 10 September. The first shock—likely associated with a coronal mass ejection—hit the Earth late on 6 September, produced a storm sudden commencement, and began the initial phase of the storm. It was followed by a second shock, approximately 24 hr later, that initiated the main phase and simultaneously the Dst index dropped to Dst = −142 nT and Kp index reached Kp = 8. Using COmposition DIstribution Function data on board Cluster satellite 4, we estimated the ionospheric O+ outflow before and after the second shock. We found an enhancement in the polar cap by a factor of 3 for an unusually high ionospheric O+ outflow (mapped to an ionospheric reference altitude) of 1013 m−2 s−1. We suggest that this high ionospheric O+ outflow is due to a preheating of the ionosphere by the multiple X-flares. Finally, we briefly discuss the space weather consequences on the magnetosphere as a whole and the enhanced O+ outflow in connection with enhanced satellite drag.
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| 3. |
- Schillings, Audrey, et al.
(författare)
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The fate of O+ ions observed in the plasma mantle : particle tracing modelling and Cluster observations
- 2020
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The atmospheric evolution on geological timescales is partly given by the atmospheric escape. This escape includes ion escape and particularly O+ ions. How much O+ ions escape from the Earth is the main focus of this study. Using the Tsyganenko and Weimer models to represent the magnetic and electric fields respectively, we traced 26200 O+ ions trajectories forward in time and studied their final positions in the Earth’s environment. Starting in the plasma mantle, the initial positions, thermal and parallel bulk velocities of O+ ions are taken from the European Cluster observations between 2001 and 2007. Most (98%) of the ions observed in the plasma mantle escape the Earth’s magnetosphere, with 20% of them directly through the dayside magnetopause. An interesting feature of the 80% escaping ions left is that very few reach the distant tail, they rather escape through the nightside magnetopause. Finally, no significant correlation was found between magnetospheric disturbed conditions and the final positions of the traced O+ ions.
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| 4. |
- Slapak, R., et al.
(författare)
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O+ heating associated with strong activity in the high altitude cusp and mantle
- 2011
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Ingår i: Annales Geophysicae. - : Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. - 0992-7689 .- 1432-0576. ; 29:1, s. 1-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We use the Cluster spacecraft to study three events with intense waves and energetic oxygen ions (O+) in the high altitude cusp and mantle. The ion energies considered are of the order 1000 eV and higher, observed above an altitude of 8 earth radii together with high wave power at the O+ gyrofrequency. We show that heating by waves can explain the observed high perpendicular energy of O+ ions, using a simple gyroresonance model and 25–45% of the observed wave spectral density at the gyrofrequency. This is in contrast to a recently published study where the wave intensity was too low to explain the observed high altitude ion energies. Long lasting cases (>10 min) of high perpendicular-to-parallel temperature ratios are sometimes associated with low wave activity, suggesting that high perpendicular-to-parallel temperature ratio is not a good indicator of local heating. Using multiple spacecraft, we show that the regions of enhanced wave activity are at least one order of magnitude larger than the gyroradius of the heated ions.
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