Abstract: Abstract We present a new interhemispheric numerical model: the IRAP plasmasphere?ionosphere model (IPIM). This model describes the transport of the multispecies ionospheric plasma from one hemisphere to the other along convecting and corotating magnetic field lines, taking into account source processes at low altitude such as photoproduction, chemistry, and energization through the coupling with a kinetic code solving the transport of suprathermal electron along the field line. Among the new developments, a 16?moment?based approach is used for the transport equations in order to allow development of strong temperature anisotropy at high altitude and we consider important but often neglected effects, such as inertial acceleration (centrifugal and Coriolis). In this paper, after presenting in detail the principle of the model, we focus on preliminary results showing the original contribution of this new model. For these first runs, we simulate the convection and corotation transport of closed flux tubes in the plasmasphere for tilted/eccentric dipolar magnetic field configuration in solstice and equinox conditions. We follow different flux tubes between 1.2 and 6 Earth Radii (RE) and demonstrate the capability of the model to describe a wide range of density (above 15 orders of magnitude). The relevance of the mathematical approach used is highlighted, as anisotropies can develop above 3000?km in the plasmasphere as a result of the mirroring effect related to the anisotropic pressure tensor. Moreover, we show that the addition of inertial acceleration may become critical to describe plasma interhemispheric transport above 4RE. The ability of the model to describe the external plasmasphere is demonstrated, and innovative studies are foreseen, regarding the dynamics of the plasma along the magnetic field lines (in particular interhemispheric exchanges and ?opening?/?closure? of a flux tube).

Abstract: 36th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston (USA), 14-18/03/2005

Abstract: The geomagnetic field above the surface of the Earth in the current-free region may be expressed as the gradient of a scalar potential solving Laplace's equation. For regions with a fairly dense coverage of data at different altitudes, a regional model ought to offer a better spatial resolution of the regional field over the volume under study than a global field expanded in spherical harmonics (SH). The spherical cap harmonics analysis (SCHA) is an attractive regional modelling tool having close relationship with global SH. With the SCHA adopted so far, difficulties arise in upward continuation and in establishing a relationship between global and local Gauss coefficients. Such a relationship would be useful, for instance, for introducing prior constraint on an inverse problem dealing with the estimation of local Gauss coefficients based upon a local data set. In this paper, we show that these difficulties are overcome if the SCHA modelling is formulated as a boundary value (BV) problem in a cone bounded radially by the surface of the Earth and an upper surface suitable for satellite data, and bounded laterally in order to encompass a specific region of study. Although the example worked out here applies only to a limited class of fields, which verifies some special flux condition, the ideas behind this formalism are quite general and should offer a new way of processing data in a bounded region of space.