Position of projections of the nightside auroral oval equatorward and poleward edges in the magnetosphere equatorial plane

Abstract

The position of the auroral oval poleward and equatorward boundary projections on the equatorial plane in the nightside MLT sector during magnetically quiet periods (|AL| < 200 nT, |Dst| < 10 nT) has been determined. The oval boundary positions were determined according to the precipitation model developed at Polar Geophysical Institute (http://apm.pgia.ru/). The isotropy of the averaged plasma pressure and the experimentally confirmed balance of pressures during the nighttime have been taken into account. The morphological mapping method has been used to map the oval poleward and equatorward edges without the use of any magnetic field model on the assumption that the condition of magnetostatic equilibrium is valid. Ion pressures at ionospheric altitudes and in the equatorial plane have been compared. It has been shown that the auroral oval equatorward boundary in the midnight sector is localized at geocentric distances of ~7 R_E, which is in good agreement with the position of the energetic particle injection boundary in the equatorial plane. The oval poleward edge is localized at the ~10 R_E geocentric distance, which is in good agreement with the position of the equatorward boundary of the region with a high turbulence level in the Earth’s magnetosphere plasma sheet.