Magnetospheric Driving via Solar Wind Mesoscale Structures

Session ID#: 123896

Session Description:
Large-scale, or globally coherent modulations of magnetic field and plasma on minutes to hours timescales are a common feature of the magnetosphere. Common drivers include the dynamic effects of solar wind CME/shock impacts and mesoscale density structures remnant from solar coronal processes. These external drivers squeeze the magnetosphere like a sponge, resulting in enhanced radiation belt electron loss due to loss cone modulation, enhanced outer boundary loss, or via atmospheric scattering by compression-generated plasma waves. This global response is not currently well understood but may be a critical component of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. This session solicits observations from satellites, balloons, and ground-based observatories of the nature and origin of external drivers, and subsequent magnetospheric particle/wave dynamics and resulting loss. We also welcome initial modeling efforts into these phenomena.
Index Terms:

2455 Particle precipitation [IONOSPHERE]
2716 Energetic particles: precipitating [MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS]
2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions [MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS]
2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions [MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS]


Primary Convener:  Aaron W Breneman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Conveners:  Simone Di Matteo, Catholic University of America, Physics Department, Washington, DC, United States, Alexa Jean Halford, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States and Lauren W Blum, University of Colorado Bouler, LASP, Boulder, CO, United States
Primary Liaison:  Aaron W Breneman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States