Motion of charged particles in the magnetosphere

Abstract

The adiabatic motion of charged particles in the magnetosphere has been investigated using Mead-Fairfield magnetospheric field model (Mead and Fairfield, 1975). Since the motion of charged particles in a dipolar field geometry is well understood, we bring out in this paper some important features in characteristic motion due to non-dipolar distortions in the field geometry. We look at the tilt averaged picture of the field configuration and estimate theoretically the parameters like bounce period, longitudinal invariant and the bounce averaged drift velocities of the charged particle in the Mead-Fairfield field geometry. These parameters are evaluated as a function of pitch angle and azimuthal position in the region of ring current (5 to 7 Earth radii from the centre of the Earth) for four ranges of magnetic activity. At different longitudes the non-dipolar contribution as a percentage of dipole value in bounce period and longitudinal invariant show maximum variation for particles close to 90° pitch angles. For any low pitch angle, these effects maximize at the midnight meridian. The radial component of the bounce averaged drift velocity is found to be greatest at the dawn-dusk meridians and the contribution vanishes at the day and midnight meridians for all pitch angles. In the absence of tilt-dependent terms in the model, the latitudinal component of the drift velocity vanishes. On the other hand, the relative non-dipolar contribution to bounce averaged azimuthal drift velocity is very high as compared to similar contribution in other characteristic parameters of particle motion. It is also shown that non-dipolar contribution in bounce period, longitudinal invariant and bounce averaged drift velocities increases in magnitude with increase in distance and magnetic activity.