N+: Gatekeepers of Ionospheric Outflow
Date:
The poster talk is presented in the virtual GEM Workshop.
Abstract: The escape of heavy ions from the Earth atmosphere is facilitated by energization and transport mechanisms, including photoionization, electron precipitation, ion-electron-neutral chemistry and collisions. Numerous studies considered the outflow of O+ ions only, but ignored the observational record of outflowing N+ ions. Single field line numerical simulations using 7iPWOM showed that the inclusion of N+ in the polar wind model can largely improve the polar wind solution under various solar activities, seasons and solar zenith angles. We examined the overall polar wind outflow flux predicted by the 7iPWOM from several hundred kms altitude to few Earth radii by running the multi-line simulations and comparing with the multi-line polar wind solution without the inclusion of N+. Numerical experiments suggest that N+ is a significant ion species in the polar ionosphere. Its presence largely reduces the O+ outflow flux by two order of magnitudes, and change the structure of ions temperature.
Recommended Citation: M-Y. Lin, R. Ilie, S. Shong, H. Hu, A. Glocer, N+: Gatekeepers of Ionospheric Outflow, Virtual GEM Plasma Workshop 2021