THE PLASMA SHEET HAS LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE AND EMBEDDED MESO-SCALE FLOW BURSTS WHICH ARE CRITICAL FOR PLASMA TRANSPORT AND FOR MAJOR GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCES. FLOW BURSTS HAVE A LARGE VARIETY OF DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OCCUR DURING DIFFERENT GEOMAGNETIC AND SOLAR WIND/IMF CONDITIONS AND MAY LEAD TO QUITE DIFFERENT DISTURBANCES AS WELL AS TO PARTICLE INJECTIONS TO THE INNER MAGNETOSPHERE DEPENDING ON THEIR COUPLING WITH THE LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTION. HOWEVER THE VARIETY OF FLOW BURST FEATURES OF DIFFERENT CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THEY OCCUR AND OF DISTURBANCES TO WHICH THEY LEAD HAVE GENERALLY NOT BEEN DISTINGUISHED. ALSO EVIDENCE SHOWS CRUCIAL INTERPLAY BETWEEN THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE AND FLOW BURSTS AND SUCH INTERPLAY HAS NOT BEEN EVALUATED. THIS WORK WILL IDENTIFY THE DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF FLOW BURSTS UNDER DIFFERENT GEOMAGNETIC CONDITIONS DETERMINE HOW FLOW BURSTS IN EACH CATEGORY INTERACT WITH AND MODIFY PLASMA SHEET LARGE SCALE CONVECTION AND PLASMA STRUCTURE AND WHEN FLOW BURSTS ARE LIKELY TO LEAD TO SPECIFIC DISTURBANCES AND RING CURRENT PARTICLE INJECTION.

University Of California, Los Angeles

Investigators