Polar cap patch segmentation of the tongue of ionization in the morning convection cell
Two types of poleward moving plasma concentration enhancements (PMPCEs) were observed during a sequence of pulsed reconnection events, both in the morning convection cell: Type L (low density) was associated with a cusp flow channel and seems likely to have been produced by ionization associated with...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Geophysical Union
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28734 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50616/abstract https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50616 |
Summary: | Two types of poleward moving plasma concentration enhancements (PMPCEs) were observed during a sequence of pulsed reconnection events, both in the morning convection cell: Type L (low density) was associated with a cusp flow channel and seems likely to have been produced by ionization associated with particle precipitation, while Type H (high density) appeared to originate from the segmentation of the tongue of ionization by the processes which produced the Type L events. As a result, the Type L and Type H PMPCEs were interspersed, producing a complex density structure which underlines the importance of cusp flow channels as a mechanism for segmenting and structuring electron density in the cusp and shows the necessity of differentiating between at least two classes of electron density patches. STFC grant ST/H002480/1 Peer-reviewed Publisher Version |
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