Slide 10Click the figures to make them larger
Slide 10
Pressure (color chart) and plasma flow velocity vectors in the Z=0 plane (equatorial plane). Highest pressure occurs in the nightside near-Earth region.
Slide 11This is exactly the same as Slide 03 above, but we have drawn two small white circles to indicate areas from which we are going to trace the current density lines into the magnetosphere. One of the circles (innermost) is in Region-1 current and the other one is in Region-2 current.a
Slide 12Side view (view along Y axis) of the path of the sample Region-1 and Region-2 currents, the footpoints of which were shown in the previous slide. The plasma pressure (color chart), solar wind streamlines (blue) and magnetic field lines (yellow, green) are also shown as in Slide 01 above. The Region-1 current starts as field-aligned current when it emerges from the eveningside ionosphere, but then it goes sunward and then up and dawnward. It crosses the Y=0 plane at about (X=1.5, Z=10). Upon entering the dawnside it follows an almost symmetrical path before entering the morningside ionosphere. The Region-2 current, on the other hand, makes a loop in the nighside near-Earth magnetosphere, without ever changing its Z coordinate much.
Slide 13Another (oblique) projection of the Region-1 and Region-2 current paths.
Slide 14A top view (along Z axis) of the Region-1 and Region-2 current paths. The left one is the Region-2 path and the right one is the Region-1 path.