Paper#: 109
Poster #:
Session Name: Workshop 2A: Particle/MHD Substorms
Room: 200ABC
Day: Monday
Time: 10:30-10:55 a.m.
Abstract Title: The Effects of Solar Wind Structure on Magnetospheric Structure
PresentSurname: Ashour-Abdalla, M.
All Authors: M. Ashour-Abdalla, M. El-Alaoui, V. Peroomian, F.V. Coroniti, R.J. Walker
Abstract : When we study magnetospheric dynamics we usually use a single upstream solar wind monitor to determine the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field parameters necessary for interpreting the observations. In so doing we assume that the solar wind propagates from the monitor to the magnetosphere at the observed velocity, that the solar wind does not evolve in the interval between the monitor and the Earth and that the solar wind is uniform over a distance equal to the width of the magnetosphere. In this talk we will evaluate how well these assumptions are met during a magnetic storm on May 24, 2000 and evaluate the effects of solar wind structure on the magnetospheric configuration and dynamics. Our approach is to model the magnetospheric configuration by using our global magnetohydrodynamic simulation and input from three different IMF monitors. For this interval ACE was located at (230 RE, 20 RE, -23 RE) in GSE coordinates, Wind was at(60 RE, 0 RE, -5 RE) and IMP-8 was at (30 RE, 20 RE, -25 RE). The IMF and solar wind parameters observed at the three monitors exhibited large differences with the biggest differences between ACE and the other monitors. Substantial differences were found in the response of the magnetosphere depending on which spacecraft was used as the IMF monitor. For instance, during a long interval the simulated polar cap potential was approximately 80 kV larger when we used Wind data to drive the simulation than when we used ACE input.