Paper#: 98
Poster #:
Session Name: Plenary
Room: West Ballroom
Day: Thursday
Time: 9:45-10:10 a.m.
Abstract Title: On the Relationship between Solar Wind Energy Input and Substorm and Non-Substorm Energy Output
PresentSurname: Freeman, M.
All Authors: M. Freeman, N. Watkins
Abstract : We review the scaling and non-scaling properties of energy dissipation in the nightside ionosphere, as deduced from the auroral electrojet AE indices and from auroral images. The scaling properties have been attributed to the self-organized critical behavior of a driven, thresholded diffusion process in the earth's magnetotail. However, some scaling properties of the AE indices have been found to be similar to those observed in the solar wind. This motivates us to consider an mhd-based model for multi-scale reconnection in the magnetotail whose governing equation includes an external solar wind driving term and an internal thresholded diffusion term. We use this model to discuss the role of the internal and external term in creating multi-scale spatio-temporal energy release events.