Magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling and scale breaking of a plasma cloud in the magnetosphere

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to deliver a long‐missing interpretation of a central issue of the NASA‐MPE barium injection experiment performed in September 1971. It pertains to the interaction with the ionosphere. Observations of the cloud's motion revealed no obvious sign of such interaction. The barium vapor was released from a Scout rocket at an altitude of 31,000 km above South America during late evening hours and was observed for more than 4000 s. The barium plasma split into several field‐parallel streaks which moved for a long time as if subject to constant acceleration as viewed from the inertial frame of the rocket at release. This means that no reflection of energy due to a mismatch of ionospheric conductivity and the characteristic impedance of an impinging Alfvén wave was observed. It is this finding that has never been properly interpreted. Furthermore, after a careful assessment of the barium cloud properties and environmental parameters, we find a theoretical coupling time to the ambient flow which turns out to be substantially longer than observed. Although this appears to indicate that some interaction with the ionosphere occurred, we can rule out multiple wave reflections during the observed acceleration phase. Discarding other possibilities, we interpret the observed motions as sign of perfect matching of the momentum and energy flux into the ionosphere with the rate of dissipation. This is achieved during the initial phase by scale breaking of the cloud into streaks with narrow widths which allow parallel potential drops along the Alfvén wings because of the waves' inertial nature and inside the lower ionosphere owing to the finite parallel resistivity, thereby greatly reducing the effective Pedersen conductivity. The significance of this finding goes beyond understanding the barium injection experiment. It sheds light on how magnetospheric plasma irregularities can share momentum and energy with the ionosphere in an optimized fashion.