Recirculation of Plasmasphere Material During a Storm Time Event

The fate of Plasmasphere material once it is drained out of the plasmasphere through a plume is unknown. One of two things may happen to the vented plasmasphere material. It can be either swept away with the solar wind, lost to the earth system, or it may be recirculated into the magnetosphere system, either through the low latitude boundary layer or over the poles and through the mantle. Recirculating plasmasphere material could plausibly enter the central plasma sheet and contribute to the ring current. Using observations to study the fate of the plasmasphere material is difficult as it is mostly hydrogen and becomes homogenized with solar wind hydrogen once it passes through the day side magnetopause. Numerical models, however, can keep the material distinct, opening the possibility of resolving the question using simulations. This work seeks to answer the question, does any plasmasphere material recirculate back into the magnetosphere? This is done by studying simulations produced by the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) configured to couple three models: the Block Adaptive Tree Solar Roe Up Wind Scheme (BATS-R-US) model, the Dynamic Global Core Plasma Model (DGCPM) plasmasphere model, and the Ridley Ionosphere Model (RIM). For this simulation BATS-R-US is configured to use two fluids. The first fluid represents currently accepted sources of ring current material, namely the solar wind and high latitude ionospheric outflow. The second fluid represents the plasmasphere. Within 10 Earth Radii (RE) the dynamics in BATS-R-US on closed field lines are dictated by coupling with the DGCPM. DGCPM passes the density of material in the plasmasphere to BATS-R-US. In addition to this coupling, RIM passes electric field information to both BATS-R-US and DGPCM while receiving current density form BATS-R-US. The outputs of the simulation are examined to evaluate plume recirculation. The fate of the plasmasphere material is then studied in an idealized.