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Polar's 5th Anniversary Special Section in JGR Space Physics: New Discoveries and Ion Signatures

This special section marks Polar's 5th anniversary and features articles on topics such as electric fields, substorm onset, ion waves, magnetospheric structures, and energetic particles. It also highlights the resurrection of TIMAS and its immediate detection of a new terrestrial ion signature. The observations provide insights into the circulation and transport of plasmaspheric ions in the magnetosphere.

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Polar's 5th Anniversary Special Section in JGR Space Physics: New Discoveries and Ion Signatures

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  1. Special Section of JGR Space Physics Marks Polar’s 5th Anniversary This April special section is first of two Polar special sections to be published in JGR this year • Some featured articles: • Mozer et al., Origin & geometry of upward parallel electric fields • Frank et al., Encounters of the substorm onset region • Reeves et al., The storm-substorm relationship • Crumley et al., Studies of ion solitary waves • Maynard et al., The magnetospheric “sash” and its implications • Trattner et al., Origins of cusp energetic particles • Fuselier et al., O+ in the cusp, implications for reconnection September 4, 1996 26 papers of new accomplishments in particle acceleration, reconnection, substorm onset, ion outflow, auroral power and precipitation, and energetic particles of the radiation belts.

  2. Polar Resurrects TIMAS, Immediately Detects New Terrestrial Ion Signature Measurements: On Oct 29, 1999, all telemetry reported from TIMAS became invalid (zeroes). Thereafter, collection of valid values was sporadic, ending on July 15, 2000 The fault appeared to be located at the interface between TIMAS and the GGS Telemetry Module 1 (GTM1) and was loosely temperature dependent. On Mar 27, 2001 the Polar spacecraft switched to its backup telemetry module and restored telemetry capture of the TIMAS mid-energy mass spectrometer. TIMAS immediately detected new terrestrial source ion signature at the dayside magnetosphere during magnetic storm period.

  3. Polar Resurrects TIMAS, Immediately Detects New Terrestrial Ion Signature Polar’s orbit has precessed so that it samples regions near the dayside equatorial magnetopause with high-temporal and spatial resolution – the low-latitude boundary layer, turbulent boundary layer, magnetosphere, and magnetosheath.

  4. Polar Resurrects TIMAS, Immediately Detects New Terrestrial Ion Signatures Observations: TIMAS energy-time spectrogram obtained as Polar passed through the polar cap, cusp and dayside magnetosphere. Obtained shortly after the onset of the large magnetic storm on 3/31/2001, these data show intense ionosphere O+ flowing at high altitudes well equatorward of the cusp. The free energy to drive these ions to such high altitudes on the dayside appears to be related to large scale electric fields generated during the storm period.

  5. Other Polar Particle Detectors Report Similar Observations Observations: TIDE low-energy ion data, from a similar orbit, clearly demonstrate the presence of the terrestrial source ions within the turbulent boundary layer. Within this layer, circularly polarized waves accelerate the plasmaspheric-like ions to 30-40 km/s perpendicular to B.

  6. New Dayside LLBL Observations Define Path for Circulation of Terrestrial Particles Interpretation and Implications: • Based on density ratios and low field-aligned drifts, the plasma is of plasmaspheric origin. • Likely to be associated with plasma tails observed by IMAGE that show a convection path for plasmaspheric ions to the magnetopause. • Polar flies through the region of emission seen by IMAGE: – provides composition and absolute density for observations – quantifies source strength – determines plasma processes for the transport of plasmaspheric ions to the plasma sheet – a source that had been proposed but not directly observed until IMAGE imaged the “path” and Polar observed the entry into the boundary layer.

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