Plasma sheet access to the inner magnetosphere

We present here plasma data from the Polar HYDRA instrument giving comprehe nsive coverage of the inner magnetospheric region from L similar to 2 outwa rd. Data is projected to an equatorial reference plane yielding a global vi ew of the inner extend of the plasma sheet. We determine the inner boundary for plasma sheet electrons and ions in the mu range 0.05 - 50 eV nT(-1) an d we compare these to the predicted Alfven boundaries as a function of the geomagnetic activity index Kp. In general, the simple conventional drift pa radigm is shown to be globally consistent with the averaged data in the inn er magnetosphere, with electrons adhering better to the predicted boundarie s than ions. The data are further compared to the geosynchronous slice as m easured by the Los Alamos Magnetospheric Plasma Analyzer (MPA) which measur es the crossing point of the Alfven boundaries at geosynchronous altitudes with much better statistical resolution than Polar Integral to the drift mo del used is an assumption about the form of the global electric field. The agreement with data validates the simple corotation and convection electric field used and shows that this model describes well the average transport for a wide range of geomagnetic activity and over a large part of the inner magnetosphere.