Experimental Study of the Plasmasphere Boundary Layer Using MAGION 5 Data

Abstract

AbstractThe in situ cold plasma measurements onboard MAGION 5 were carried out with very good time resolution, and this permitted to analyze thin plasmasphere boundary layer (PBL) near the plasmapause. In this layer the plasma density N is decreasing exponentially with L: N~exp((LPP − L)/WB), where WB corresponds to the characteristic width of the PBL, the distance in L within which the density varies by a factor of e, and LPP is the position of the plasmapause. The density in the boundary layer is inversely proportional to the volume of the unit magnetic flux tube, whereas its width is proportional to the volume of magnetic flux tube. The characteristic width of the PBL linearly depends on the time elapsed since the most recent maximum value of KP. Empirical relation for the dependence of the PBL width on most recent maximum value of KP and on the lapse time between this maximum and the plasmapause observations is proposed.