Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 43, Issue 10, Pages 4825-4833Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2016GL069008
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Funding
- NASA [NNX11AD78G, NNX15AF57G, NNX16AG69G]
- Van Allen Probes (RBSP) under NASA [NAS5-01072]
- RBSP-ECT JHU/APL [967399]
- Australian Research Council [FT110100316]
- University of Sydney
- Australian Research Council [FT110100316] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
- NASA [NNX16AG69G, 148582, NNX11AD78G, NNX15AF57G, 805007, 904219] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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We show how dispersive Alfven waves observed in the inner magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms can extract O+ ions from the topside ionosphere and accelerate these ions to energies exceeding 50 keV in the equatorial plane. This occurs through wave trapping, a variant of shock surfing, and stochastic ion acceleration. These processes in combination with the mirror force drive field-aligned beams of outflowing ionospheric ions into the equatorial plane that evolve to provide energetic O+ distributions trapped near the equator. These waves also accelerate preexisting/injected ion populations on the same field lines. We show that the action of dispersive Alfven waves over several minutes may drive order of magnitude increases in O+ ion pressure to make substantial contributions to magnetospheric ion energy density. These wave accelerated ions will enhance the ring current and play a role in the storm time evolution of the magnetosphere.
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