An empirical static model of low energy ring current ions

• Published in: Geophysical research letters Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 141 - 144
• Main Authors: Collin, H. L., Quinn, J. M., Cladis, J. B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Blackwell Publishing Ltd 22.01.1993; American Geophysical Union
• Subjects: 661320 - Auroral, Ionospheric, & Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-); Adiabatic flow; CATIONS; CHARGED PARTICLES; CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Construction; DENSITY; EARTH ATMOSPHERE; Earth, ocean, space; ELECTRIC FIELDS; Empirical analysis; ENERGY; Energy distribution; ENERGY RANGE; EV RANGE; EV RANGE 10-100; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; HYDROGEN IONS; HYDROGEN IONS 1 PLUS; INCLINATION; INTERACTIONS; IONOSPHERE; IONS; KEV RANGE; KEV RANGE 01-10; KEV RANGE 10-100; MAPPING; ORBITS; OXYGEN IONS; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; Physics of the magnetosphere; Pitch angle; PLANETARY IONOSPHERES; Plasma motion, convection, circulation. Plasma instabilities; RADIATION BELTS; Ring currents; SOLAR ACTIVITY; SOLAR WIND; Static models; Static model; Ring current; Oxygen Atomic ions; Proton; Ions; Satellite observation; Magnetosphere; Empirical model
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1029/93GL00066

The empirical model consists of a set of average equatorial energy and pitch‐angle distributions of fluxes of H+ and O+ in the energy range 110 eV to 35 keV for a number of local time and L ranges. It was constructed from data acquired by the Lockheed IMS‐LO ion mass spectrometer on CRRES (apogee 6.3 RE, inclination 18°) which sampled a substantial portion of the ring current region. Equatorial distributions were constructed by mapping the ion data adiabatically from the satellite location to the equatorial plane, which was taken to be the minimum B surface. There the data were binned by their energy and equatorial pitch angle and sorted into ranges of L and local time. Equatorial distributions from many orbits were accumulated and averaged to construct the average equatorial distributions. This static model represents the average magnetosphere during the CRRES mission, August 1990 through October 1991, regardless of magnetic activity. In the absense of parallel electric fields and wave‐particle interactions, the model may be used to estimate the ion distributions at non‐equatorial magnetic latitudes by adiabatic mapping.