Dynamic plasmapause model based on THEMIS measurements

This paper presents a dynamic plasmapause location model established based on 5 years of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) measurements from 2009 to 2013. In total, 5878 plasmapause crossing events are identified, sufficiently covering all 24 magnetic local time (MLT) sectors. Based on this plasmapause crossing database, we investigate the correlations between plasmapause locations with solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices. Input parameters for the best fits are obtained for different MLT sectors, and finally, we choose five input parameters to build a plasmapause location model, including 5 min-averaged SYM-H, AL, and AU indices as well as hourly-averaged AE and Kp indices. two out-of-sample comparisons on the evolution of the plasmapause is shown during two magnetic storms, demonstrating good agreement between model results and observations. Two major advantages are achieved by this model. First, this model provides plasmapause locations at 24 MLT sectors, still providing good consistency with observations. Second, this model is able to reproduce dynamic variations of the plasmapause on timescales as short as 5 min.