Use of the physically based modeling to choose an adequate method for determining the plasmapause position

Abstract

From the data on the cold plasma measurements onboard the INTERBALL-1 spacecraft (1995–2000), the plasmapause positions determined from the most frequently used formal criterion—a fivefold or higher decrease in plasma density with an increase in the L-shell by 0.5—and visually from the measured energy spectra of thermal protons have been analyzed and compared. The difference in the results of the both empiric techniques makes it possible to estimate the thickness of the boundary layer of the plasmasphere. The model of the Earth’s plasmasphere developed earlier by the authors (Verigin et al., 2012; Kotova et al., 2015) based on the theoretical expressions makes it possible to reconstruct the plasma distribution throughout the plasmasphere from the measurements along a single pass of the orbiter and to find the plasmapause position defined as the last closed stream line. Comparison of the plasmapause position obtained with empirical techniques to the position of this boundary calculated with physically based models of the plasma distribution in the plasmasphere has shown that the modeled position of the plasmapause approximately coincides with that determined from the formal criterion described above.