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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Q. H. Zhang, B. C. Zhang, J. Moen, M. Lockwood, I. W. McCrea, H. G. Yang, H. Q. Hu, R. Y. Liu, S. R. Zhang, Mark Lester
Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: 2013
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Online Access:https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Polar_cap_patch_segmentation_of_the_tongue_of_ionization_in_the_morning_convection_cell/10135073
Description
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.