Global aspects of plasma structures

This topical review provides an overview of the progress achieved under Project 3.1, entitled Global Aspects of Plasma Structures (GAPS) during the lifetime of the Solar Terrestrial Energy Program (STEP) from 1990–97. The mandate of the GAPS project covered middle and high latitude plasma structuring. However, given the requirement of limited length for this overview, only high latitude studies will be covered because of the particularly collaborative nature of the effort, made possible by an international program such as STEP. High latitude plasma structuring studies have progressed from joint experimental campaigns involving many locations and diagnostic techniques, and several focused international workshops that united experimenters and modelers. They have provided the groundwork for studying the macroscale (hundreds of km) and mesoscale (km and smaller) plasma structures at high latitudes under two distinct configurations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF).When the IMF is directed southward, we observe macroscale, enhanced density structures known as patches. We have documented much on their origin, modification by the electric field structure in the cusp, airglow signatures in the polar cap, interaction with the neutral medium, mesoscale structuring causing scintillations, convection through the polar cap, and eventual exit into the auroral oval. This has led to several modeling efforts, demonstrating patch formation via temporal changes in the large-scale flow configuration in the cusp. Additionally, we have successfully linked the climatology of the macroscale structure model to the mesoscale structure in the polar regions, an advance that may lead to truly predictive irregularity models for forecasting effects on communication and navigation systems during the upcoming solar maximum.For northward IMF conditions, we have advanced our ability to simulate Sun-aligned arcs using a magnetosphere–ionosphere (M–I) coupled model, driven by realistic magnitudes of electric fields, conductivities and currents. The simulation has been enabled by utilizing an extensive ground-based optical database supported by satellite measurements of their morphological characteristics, including their dawn-dusk motion, dependence on IMF By, and propensity for multiple structuring. We soon expect significant advances resulting from several newly established powerful instruments in the northern and southern polar regions.