Space Climate 7 Meeting Abstract
A New Mechanism to Explain the Wilcox et al. (1973) Effect
Bruce T. Tsurutani (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
R. Hajra2, T. Tanimori3, A.Takada3, B. Remya4, A.J. Mannucci1, G.S. Lakhina5, J.U. Kozyra6, K. Shiokawa7, L.C. Lee4, E. Echer2, R.V. Reddy4, and W.D. Gonzalez2 1Pasadena, CA 2Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Sao Jose dos Campos, SP, Brazil 3Faculty of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 6068502, Japan 4Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 5Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Navi Mumbai, India 6National Science Foundation, Wash. D.C. 7 Institute for Space Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Wilcox et al. (1973) discovered that solar wind heliospheric current sheet (HCS) crossings affected high atmospheric vorticity centers at ~300 mb altitude. In a new interpretation of this effect, we show that high density solar wind heliospheric plasmasheet (HPS) events impinge onto the magnetosphere, compressing it along with remnant noon-sector outer-zone magnetospheric ~10-100 keV protons. The betatron accelerated protons generate coherent EMIC waves through a temperature anisotropy (T┴/T|| > 1) instability. The waves in turn interact with relativistic electrons and cause the rapid loss of these particles to a small region of the atmosphere. A peak total energy deposition of 3 x 1020 ergs is derived for the precipitating electrons. Maximum energy deposition and creation of electron-ion pairs at 30-50 km and at < 30 km altitude are quantified. Several possible atmospheric effects can be caused by this energy deposition.
Mode of presentation: oral (Need to be confirmed by the SOC)