A Dynamical Model for the Coupled Inner Magnetosphere and Tail

WINDMI-RC is a family of physics-based models that range in dimensionality from low-order models of dimension d = 8, which model the flow of energy between the eight highest global energy components of the tail, to high-order models with dimension d /spl sim/ 100 or more, for models that resolve the nonlinear dynamics of the system into different latitude zones. The models are intrinsically three-dimensional in configuration space and use the basic geometry of the Tsyganenko magnetic field model to define the geometrical quantities. The models satisfy the constraints of the conservations laws of energy and electrical charge in their network of nodes and branches that follow from the structure of the system. These models describe the injection of plasma from the plasma sheet and across the Alfve/spl acute/n layer into the inner ring current. The transport uses the storm-time solar wind dynamo electric field as the driver for the network model coupled to the inner magnetospheric corotation electric field.