(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2007) Larsen, Brian Arthur; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David M. Klumpar; Dana Longcope (co-chair)
Terrestrial plasmaspheric dynamics have been observed using single satellite passes and long term statistical studies for many years all with in-situ measurements. The EUV instrument aboard the IMAGE spacecraft provided global plasmaspheric data by imaging He-II at 30.4nm. The global imaging revealed significant dynamics modifying current theory and observing many new features. Global imaging removes any space/time ambiguity and provides a regular high-quality data set ideal for correlative studies and region comparisons. This work presents several studies enabled by this global imaging: an empirical model of plasmapause position as a function of solar wind parameters, a derivation of the global magnetospheric convection electric field based on plasmaspheric feature tracking, and a study of plasmaspheric rotation and its associated ionospheric ion drift signature. Using plasmapause position data extracted from inverted EUV images, the plasmapause position is found to be strongly correlated with the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) z-component and a magnetospheric merging proxy.
