Field-aligned flows of H + and He + in the mid-latitude topside ionosphere at solar maximum

Abstract

A time-dependent mathematical model of the Earth's ionosphere and plasmasphere has been used to investigate the field-aligned flows of H + and He + in the topside ionosphere at L = 3 during solar maximum. When the flux-tube content is low there are upward flows of H + and He + during daytime in both the winter and summer topside ionospheres. During winter night-time the directions of flow are, in general, downwards for He + because of the night-time decrease in He + scale height, and upwards for H +, because of the replenishment needs of the flux tube. In the winter topside ionosphere, during the later stages of flux-tube replenishment, H + generally flows downwards during both day and night as a result of the greater plasma pressure in the summer hemisphere whilst He + flows upwards during the day and downwards at night. In the summer topside ionosphere H + flows upward to replace the H + lost from the plasmasphere to the winter topside ionosphere whilst the winter helium bulge leads to flows of He + that are in the direction winter hemisphere to summer hemisphere. When the flux-tube content is low, counterstreaming of H + and He +, with H + flowing upwards and He + downwards, occurs for most of the day above about 5000 km altitude in the summer hemisphere. There are occurrences of this type of counterstreaming in both the summer and winter hemispheres during the night. When the flux-tube content is high, counterstreaming of H + and He + occurs less frequently and over smaller regions of the flux tube. There are regions in both hemispheres where H + flows downwards whilst He + flows upwards.