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This study investigates the effects of non-zero IMF By on the magnetotail By and fast earthward ion convection (V⊥ > 200 km/s, "⊥" indicates perpendicular to the magnetic field) in the near-lunar magnetotail plasma sheet using the plasma parameters and magnetic field detected by the ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence, and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) P1 satellite during the period 2011–2022. We find that the magnetotail By with in the same direction as IMF By dominates the entire region. The IMF By influence is hemisphere-independent, but shows a dusk-dawn asymmetry with the IMF By effect being weaker in the premidnight region than in the postmidnight region. We also find that the IMF By influence on earthward fast convection results in an interhemispheric flow asymmetry and it is highly correlated with the direction of magnetotail By. The statistical results indicate that occasionally localized dynamics can have a significant effect on magnetotail By and V⊥.

Earth wind, namely the particles from the Earth's magnetotail, is an important source of lunar water. Besides tailward flow incident on the lunar nearside when the Moon is in the magnetotail, there exists earthward flow bombarding the farside, affecting the distribution and preservation of lunar water. In this study, we determine the incident fluxes of both the tailward and earthward flows on the lunar surface with the ARTEMIS observations and examine their influences on the concentration and migration of lunar surface water and its reservation in the polar regions using Monte Carlo modeling. It is found that water molecules produced by the earthward flow can stay longer on the surface than those produced by the tailward flow. Our results suggest that the evolution of the Earth's magnetosphere can be inferred from Earth wind particles implanted in the soils of both the lunar nearside and farside.

In this study, we analyze 5 years of THEMIS and MMS mission data to statistically investigate the distribution of earthward and tailward ion flows during three substorm phases in Earth's magnetotail plasma sheet. The average flow patterns reveal primarily slow sunward and occasional fast tailward convection throughout all substorm phases. Most earthward flows in the plasma sheet had speeds around 35 km/s within the region X > -15R(E), as observed by THEMIS, while peak velocities reached up to 350 km/s in areas where X < -15R(E), as observed by MMS-1. Tailward flows showed velocities near 30 km/s earthward of X approximate to-15, according to THEMIS, with peak velocities of 300 km/s in the region X > -15R(E), based on MMS-1 data. Dusk-dawn (V-perpendicular to y) flows exhibit duskward motion in the premidnight and midnight regions and dawnward motion in the postmidnight sector. A dawn-dusk density and pressure asymmetry was observed, with higher density and pressure on the dawn side of the near-Earth plasma sheet throughout the growth to recovery phases. Plasma sheet temperatures were generally lower during the growth and late expansion phases compared to the recovery phase, especially near midnight compared to the flanks. A Student's t-test revealed a statistically significant asymmetry in ion flows and plasma parameters between the dawn and dusk sectors.

The bow shock current (BSC) plays an important role in supplying the magnetosphere with solar wind energy, in particular during times of low solar wind magnetosonic Mach numbers. Since the magnetic pile-up in the magnetosheath has to be maintained, the BSC cannot close locally, but must instead connect to magnetospheric current systems. However, the details of this closure remain poorly understood. For east–west interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) it has been hypothesized that the BSC partly closes to the high-latitude ionosphere, as field-aligned currents (FACs) on open field lines, but there is still no statistical evidence of this. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we use 9 years of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) data to construct normalized FAC maps of the northern hemisphere polar cap. We sort them according to different IMF clock angles, IMF magnitudes and magnetosonic Mach numbers. By separating opposite polarity FACs, we show that, on average, a unipolar FAC exists in the dayside polar cap when the IMF (Formula presented.), regardless of the sign of the IMF (Formula presented.). This current flows out of (into) the ionosphere in the northern hemisphere for IMF (Formula presented.) (Formula presented.) and is thus of the correct polarity to connect to the north–south component of the BSC. Moreover, it is strongest when the BSC flows predominantly in the north–south direction. These results constitute the first statistical evidence in support of at least a partial closure of the BSC to the ionosphere during non-zero IMF (Formula presented.).

The solar wind and its embedded magnetic field, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) together with magnetic reconnection power the large-scale plasma and magnetic flux circulation in the Earth's magnetosphere-ionosphere system. This circulation is termed as convection and its strength is controlled by the north-south IMF component (IMF B_z). In recent years, an interest has arisen to investigate the lesser-known role of the dusk-dawn component (IMF B_y) in convection. It has been previously known though that prevailing nonzero IMF B_y can cause plasma flow asymmetries in the high-latitude ionosphere, but how the magnetospheric flows, for instance, in the magnetotail plasma sheet are affected, remains to be investigated. In this article, we introduce the recent progress and the latest achievements in the research of the influence of IMF B_y on tail plasma sheet convection. The research progress has been rapid and it has revealed that both fast and slow convection are affected in a manner that is in accordance with the asymmetries observed in the ionospheric convection. The results indicate the significance of the IMF B_y component on magnetospheric convection and they represent a major advance in the field of solar wind-magnetosphere coupling.

Using the high-time-resolution data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, precursor waves upstream of foreshock transient (FT) shocks are statistically investigated using the four-spacecraft timing method. The wave frequencies and wave vectors determined in the plasma rest frame (PRF) are shown to follow the cold plasma dispersion relation for whistler waves. Combining with the feature of the right-hand polarization in the PRF, the precursors are identified as whistler-mode waves around the lower hybrid frequency. The occurrence of whistler precursors is independent of the Alfvén Mach number and the FT shock normal angle. More importantly, all the whistler precursors have group velocities pointing upstream in the shock frame, suggesting the dispersive radiation to be a possible generation mechanism. The study improves the understanding of not only the whistler precursors but also the overall FT shock dynamics.

In this study, we investigate statistical features of polar cap north (PCN) and south (PCS) indices in response to various interplanetary conditions (interplanetary magnetic field [IMF] orientation in three-dimensions) and terrestrial conditions (seasonal and magnetic local time [MLT] locations of the index stations). The concurrent PCN-PCS pairs for 1998–2002 and 2004–2018 are divided based on their sign type (positive-positive, negative-negative, negative-positive, and positive-negative PCN-PCS pairs) and time coverage (the times when both index stations are in the dawn/dusk MLT sector during northern summer/winter). Analyzing the IMF orientation dependence on the occurrence probabilities of concurrent indices and on the differences between the indices in various sign types for each time coverage reveals that the statistical features in PCN-PCS pairs obtained in the dawn MLT sector can be largely explained by the effects of the three-component IMF (related to the polar cap convection patterns) combined with season (related to the hemispheric asymmetry in solar illumination-induced ionospheric conductance). However, those obtained in the dusk MLT sector are controlled dominantly by seasonal effects rather than IMF orientation effects. Our findings indicate that PCN-PCS pair data provide local views about the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere (SW-M-I) coupling system with different control efficiencies of IMF orientation and season depending on the MLT location of the stations. Therefore, introducing polar cap indices recorded simultaneously at various locations in both hemispheres and analyzing them are strongly required to infer global views of the coupled SW-M-I system in the open field regions with higher confidence.

In this paper, we provide statistical evidence that the level of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere (SW-M-I) coupling is weaker under radial (Sun-Earth component dominant) interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions than non-radial IMF conditions. This is performed by analyzing auroral electrojet activity (using SuperMAG auroral electrojet indices) in the sunlit and dark ionospheres for long-duration (at least 4 hr) radial IMF events and comparing against the same for long-duration azimuthal (dusk-dawn component dominant) IMF events. We show that the north-south IMF component (IMF Bz) plays a crucial role in controlling the level of auroral electrojet activity as a negative half-wave rectifier even for both IMF orientation categories. However, it is found that the magnitudes of the auroral electrojet indices are generally lower for radial IMF than for azimuthal IMF under similar sets of solar wind (radial bulk velocity and number density) and IMF Bz conditions, regardless of whether these indices are derived in the sunlit or dark regions. Moreover, the efficiency of coupling functions is lower for radial IMF than for azimuthal IMF, implying that increased coupling strength due to the azimuthal IMF component alone cannot well explain weaker auroral electrojets during radial IMF periods. Lastly, the contribution of the radial IMF component itself to auroral electrojet activity is also lower compared to the azimuthal IMF component. Our results suggest that the level of SW-M-I coupling characterized by auroral electrojet activity can be modulated by the radial IMF component, although the effect of this component is weaker than the other two IMF components.

We statistically investigate convective earthward fast flows using data measured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in the tail plasma sheet during 2017–2021. We focus on “frozen in” fast flows and investigate the importance of different electric field components in the Sun-Earth (V⊥x) and dusk-dawn (V⊥y) velocity components perpendicular to the magnetic field. We find that a majority of the fast flow events (52% of 429) have the north-south electric field component (Ez) as the most relevant or dominating component whereas 26% are so-called conventional type fast flows with Ey and Ex as the relevant components. The rest of the flow events, 22%, fall into the two ’mixed’ categories, of which almost all these fast flows, 20% of 429, have Ey and Ez important for V⊥x and V⊥y, respectively. There is no Y-location preference for any type of the fast flows. The conventional fast flows are detected rather close to the neutral sheet whereas the other types can be measured farther away. Typical total speeds are highest in the mixed category. Typical perpendicular speeds are comparably high in the conventional and mixed categories. The slowest fast flows are measured in the Ez category. Most of the fast flow events are measured in the substorm recovery phase. Prevailing interplanetary magnetic field By conditions influence the V⊥y direction and the influence is most efficient for the Ez-dominated fast flows.

Plasma vortices are ubiquitous in space and play important roles in the transmission of energy and mass at various scales. For small-scale plasma vortices on the order of ion gyroradius, however, their properties and characteristics remain unclear. Here, we provide unique findings of an ion-scale vortex observed in the Earth's magnetosheath. The vortex is generated by the ion diamagnetic drift associated with an isolated magnetic hole (MH). The magnetic field in the axial direction is reversed in the vortex center, which is consistent with ring-shaped currents carried by the ions. The field strength becomes very weak (<1 nT) at the field reversal region, although the ion distributions vary rather continuously across the entire structure. A kinetic equilibrium model is then applied to reconstruct the above features. These findings can help us understand the plasma vortex and MH from magnetohydrodynamics to kinetic scales.