Ionospheric and Solar Wind Contributions to the Storm-Time Near-Earth Plasma Sheet

The storm-time ring current is formed by the inward convection of the near-earth plasma sheet, so understanding the changing source of the plasma sheet is key for understanding ring current development. The ionospheric and solar wind sources can be distinguished by the charge state of the heavy ions; solar wind ions are highly iononized, while ionospheric ions are predominantly singly ionized. AMPTE/CHEM measurements are used to track the changing composition in the 6-9 Re plasma sheet as a storm develops in order to determine the fraction of the population that comes from each source. We find that prior to the storm, the solar wind source dominates. During the storm main phase, the solar wind contribution decreases, while the ionospheric contribution increases, making the source predominantly ionospheric. The source returns to predominantly solar wind plasma during the recovery phase. Plain Language Summary The ions trapped in the earth's magnetic field have two possible sources: the sun or the earth's ionosphere. A stream of ionized particles from the sun called the solar wind is constantly moving outward, flowing by the earth. These particles can enter the earth's magnetosphere and become trapped. Ions can also be accelerated out of the ionosphere into the magnetosphere. The interplay between these two sources is not well understood. In this paper, we test how the source changes as a large geomagnetic storm develops. We find that the source switches from being dominantly solar wind, to dominantly ionospheric during the peak of the storm. Key Points Ionospheric and solar wind sources to the near-earth plasma sheet are tracked during one storm using the AMPTE/CHEM instrument There is a sharp change from a predominantly solar wind to ionospheric source during both intensifications in the storm's main phase The source changes back to predominantly solar wind during the recovery phase