TY - JOUR

T1 - Solar wind control of the tail lobe magnetic field as deduced from Geotail, AMPTE/IRM, and ISEE 2 data

AU - Tsyganenko, NA

PY - 2000/3/1

Y1 - 2000/3/1

N2 - A statistical study was made of the tail lobe field response to the dynamical pressure of the incoming solar wind and to the interplanetary magnetic field, as well as its relation to the concurrent level of the Dst field. The study covers a wide range of distances between 10 and 60R(E) and is based on a large set of tail lobe magnetic field data, compiled from three sources: (1) Geotail magnetometer and low-energy plasma instrument data for 1993-1997, (2) AMPTE/IRM magnetometer and plasma instrument data for 1985-1986, and (3) ISEE 2 magnetometer and fast plasma experiment data for 1978-1980. The tailward variation of the tail lobe field and of its response to the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions was studied using a regression relationship, including various combinations of the interplanetary quantities, measured by IMP 8 and Wind spacecraft. An investigation of the role of the time lag effects was made by tagging each lobe field measurement by a "trail" of 12 consecutive 5-min average values of the solar wind parameters and finding best fit distributions of the lagged response amplitudes in the solar-wind and IMF-related regression terms. The goal of the work is to find a set of input variables providing the highest correlation between the observed and predicted magnitude of the tail lobe field, so that their combination could be used for parameterizing the strength of the cross-tail current in the data-based magnetospheric models.

AB - A statistical study was made of the tail lobe field response to the dynamical pressure of the incoming solar wind and to the interplanetary magnetic field, as well as its relation to the concurrent level of the Dst field. The study covers a wide range of distances between 10 and 60R(E) and is based on a large set of tail lobe magnetic field data, compiled from three sources: (1) Geotail magnetometer and low-energy plasma instrument data for 1993-1997, (2) AMPTE/IRM magnetometer and plasma instrument data for 1985-1986, and (3) ISEE 2 magnetometer and fast plasma experiment data for 1978-1980. The tailward variation of the tail lobe field and of its response to the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions was studied using a regression relationship, including various combinations of the interplanetary quantities, measured by IMP 8 and Wind spacecraft. An investigation of the role of the time lag effects was made by tagging each lobe field measurement by a "trail" of 12 consecutive 5-min average values of the solar wind parameters and finding best fit distributions of the lagged response amplitudes in the solar-wind and IMF-related regression terms. The goal of the work is to find a set of input variables providing the highest correlation between the observed and predicted magnitude of the tail lobe field, so that their combination could be used for parameterizing the strength of the cross-tail current in the data-based magnetospheric models.

KW - GEOMAGNETIC-FIELD

KW - CURRENT SHEET

KW - MAGNETOSPHERE

KW - magnetotail

KW - modeling

KW - spacecraft data

KW - solar wind

KW - interplanetary magnetic field

KW - plasma pressure

U2 - 10.1029/1999JA000375

DO - 10.1029/1999JA000375

M3 - Article

VL - 105

SP - 5517

EP - 5528

JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences

JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences

SN - 0148-0227

IS - A3

ER -