The Plasmasphere

The Properties and Origins of Corotating Plasmaspheric Irregularities as Revealed Through a New Tomographic Technique

“…The apparent eastward motion was simply the result of the predominantly corotating nature of the plasmasphere and the fixed nature of the radio sources, which are thousands if not millions of lightyears away. While the apparent wavelengths of these CPIs tended to be on the order of tens of kilometers, similar structures were observed on larger scales ( few hundred kilometers) with the IMAGE satellite EUV camera (Darrouzet et al, ). We note that here and elsewhere within the paper, we refer to the measured scale sizes of CPIs as wavelengths since they appear as wavelike structures to the VLA.…”

“…Since it is not directly subjected to ion/neutral coupling via collisions like the ionosphere or to the effects of the solar wind like most of the magnetosphere, it is generally free from relatively dramatic features/disturbances except during events like large geomagnetic storms. Direct imaging of the plasmasphere from space has revealed several distinct features such as notches, shoulders, and plumes (Burch, Mitchell, et al, ; Burch, Mende, et al, ; Darrouzet et al, ; Sandel et al, ). However, these are typically located in the outskirts near the plasmapause and related to solar/geomagnetic activity.…”