Plasma Sheet Structure

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

This project will utilize data from the international Geotail satellite to examine the properties of the dense sheet of plasma that is found in the equatorial region of the Earth's magnetotail. The work will determine the properties of the particle drifts, the pressure tensor, the transport of magnetic flux, the structure of the current sheet, field-aligned currents, and magnetic reconnection. The data will be binned according to solar wind and geomagnetic parameters in order to determine how the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) control the properties of the plasma sheet. Three-dimensional models will be generated for different solar wind and IMF conditions.