Ionospheric plasma outflow in response to transverse ion heating: Self-consistent macroscopic treatment

Abstract

We examined the various likely processes for creating the cavities and found that the mirror force acting on the transversely heated ions is the most likely mechanism. The pondermotive force causing the wave collapse was found to be a much weaker force than the mirror force on the transversely heated ions observed inside the cavities along with the lower hybrid waves. Using a hydrodynamic model for the polar wind we modeled the cavity formation and found that for the heating rate obtained from the observed waves, the mirror force does create cavities with depletions as observed. Some initial results from this study were published in a recent Geophysical Research Letters and were reported in the Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco. We have continued this investigation using a large-scale semikinetic model