Plasma Entry and Transport Workshop 2009 - Topics

One of the fundamental problems of magnetospheric physics is the origin and transport paths of the plasma that populates the plasma sheet of the magnetosphere. The workshop will address this problem through the discussion of observations and physical mechanisms that allow solar wind and ionospheric material to enter the plasma sheet. The discussion will address ion outflow from the ionosphere and plasma entry from the solar wind, relevant observations for these plasma sources, and the physical mechanisms that facilitate the plasma entry and the redistribution of the plasma within the plasma sheet. One of the key questions in this discussion is the dependence of the entry and transport on the orientation of the IMF and other solar wind properties.

During recent years our field has made considerable progress on the workshop topics such that a critical and systematic discussion of our current understanding and an identification of outstanding issues appears timely. In this sense we encourage the participants to keep formal presentations reasonably short and focused on the critical issues that they have identified. In addition we ask to provide specifically a set of outstanding issues from their point of view.


Key topics of the workshop are:

A) Ionospheric sources:

  1. Morphology (Fluxes, outflow locations, concentrations and distribution in the plasma sheet);

  2. Typical time scales;

  3. Solar wind dependence;

  4. Mechanisms;

  5. Heating;

  6. Role of heavy ions in magnetospheric transport;

  7. Parameterization?


B) Solar wind sources:

  1. Morphology (Plasma sheet properties, dawn dusk-asymmetry etc.)

  2. Entry for northward IMF (cusp reconnection, Kelvin Helmholtz modes, diffusion, mechanisms and observations),

  3. Entry for southward IMF (refilling of the plasma sheet, global simulations and observations),

  4. Entropy and entropy changes (Heating).


C) Plasma circulation within the plasma sheet

  1. Convective vs turbulent transport for northward and southward IMF;

  2. Constraints to convection (entropy, boundary conditions);

  3. Mapping of convection to the ionosphere, observations, ionospheric influence on convection or turbulence.

  4. Mechanisms for convection and turbulence (recovery phase, bursty bulk flows; steady magnetospheric convection, etc.).

D) Special questions for global models:

  • Northward IMF:

  1. Are there any dawn-dusk plasma sheet asymmetries (possibly associated with different dawn-dusk magnetosheath properties) for Parker spiral and Ortho-Parker spiral IMF

  2. Are KH modes present at the flank boundaries and for what conditions.

  3. What is the transport process of cold magnetosheath material inside the plasma sheet (convection, turbulent convection, diffusion)?

  4. Does entropy change for during plasma entry and convection and if so, by what mechanism? Has the entropy change influence on convection?

  • Southward IMF:

  1. What is the plasma sheet refilling mechanism (does this possibly require an IMF By component?

  2. What are the nonadiabatic heating processes that change entropy(temperature) from magnetosheath (mantle) to plasma sheet values.

E) Special issues for observations:

  1. Are there observations that help to identify the plasma transport mechanism in the plasma sheet (what is the contributions by turbulence. What are the properties of turbulence and how is turbulence driven?)

  2. Is the ion to electron temperature ratio universal (7:1) in the magnetosheath and magnetosphere?

  3. What are the transport paths and heating of ionospheric material in the plasma sheet?

  4. Also: All observations relevant to the special questions raised for the global models?