SPRG Seminars
November 19, 2013:
"The plasmaspheric plume and solar wind-magnetosphere coupling"
Brian Walsh, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland
The coupling of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetosphere is highly dependent on the efficiency of magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause. When the reconnection rate is high, large amounts of energy and mass are transferred from the solar wind to the magnetosphere. The plasmaspheric plume is one feature that can throttle this coupling process. During magnetically disturbed periods plumes brings cold dense plasma to the magnetopause and mass-loads the reconnection site. This in turn has been suggested to reduce the efficiency of reconnection. A magnetospheric and ionospheric picture of this process is given and its role in the development and reduction of a storm's magnitude is investigated.