Temporal variations in the dawn and dusk midlatitude trough and plasmapause position

The temporal development of the latitudinal position of a 600 km midlatitude electron density trough at dawn and dusk during the period 25–27 May 1967, which encompassed a large magnetic storm, was measured by the RF capacitive probe on the polar orbiting Ariel 3 satellite. The substorm-related changes in the L coordinate of the trough minimum and the point of most rapid change of density gradient on the low latitude side of the trough are similar. Oscillations of the trough position at dusk are in phase with substorm activity whereas movement of the trough at dawn is only apparent with the onset of the large storm. Detailed model calculations of the plasmasphere dynamics assuming a spatially invariant equatorial convection E-field which varies in step with the K_p index produces a plasmapause motion which parallels the observed trough behaviour, particularly at dusk, and shows that the outer plasmasphere and possibly the trough region are characterized by complex fine structured variations due to the past history of the magnetosphere convection.