The relation among the ring current, subauroral polarization stream, and the geospace plume: MAGE simulation of the 31 March 2001 super storm

The apparent spatial overlap and joint temporal evolution between the plasmaspheric plume and the equatorial mapping of the SED/TEC plume indicate strong magnetospheric-ionospheric coupling. However, a systematic modeling study of the factors contributing to geospace plume development has not yet been performed due to the lack of a sufficiently comprehensive model including all the relevant physical processes.

In this paper, we present a numerical simulation of the geospace plume in the 31 March 2001 storm using the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment model. The simulation reproduces the observed linkage of the two plumes, which, we interpret as a result of both being driven by the electric field that maps between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. The model predicts two velocity channels of sunward plasma drift at different latitudes in the dusk sector during the storm main phase, which are identified as the sub-auroral polarization stream (subauroral polarization streams (SAPS)) and the convection return flow, respectively.