loading page

Database of storm-time equatorial ion temperatures in Earth's magnetosphere calculated from energetic neutral atom data
  • +1
  • Amy M Keesee,
  • Roxanne Marie Katus,
  • Matthew Floyd,
  • Earl E. Scime
Amy M Keesee
University of New Hampshire

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Roxanne Marie Katus
Eastern Michigan University
Author Profile
Matthew Floyd
Eastern Michigan University
Author Profile
Earl E. Scime
West Virginia University
Author Profile

Abstract

Ion temperature is a key parameter that influences dynamics in the magnetosphere, such as particle transport and wave-particle interactions. Measurements of ion heating and energization yields information about phenomena such as magnetic reconnection, bursty bulk flows, and ion injections. Taking advantage of the global view provided by energetic neutral atom imaging, a database of ion temperature maps during geomagnetic storms occurring throughout the NASA TWINS mission has been created. These ion temperature maps and relevant metadata are publicly available on CDAWeb to facilitate comparison to in situ measurements and model output, for use as boundary conditions for simulations, and for other relevant studies. A preliminary study of average plasma sheet ion temperatures calculated from these maps has revealed a common occurrence of decreasing ion temperature concurrent with a sharp negative gradient in the IMF B. A preliminary case study for one storm is presented.
Sep 2020Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 125 issue 9. 10.1029/2020JA028266