Diagnosing the storm-time ring current and other magnetospheric plasma domains using relativistic electron data Original Research Article

Ring current ions and relativistic electrons simultaneously measured on board MOLNIYA-1 are analyzed in comparison with the ground-based magnetometer data for the period of a strong magnetic storm (|Dst|max≈230 nT). Injection of >500 keV electrons into the slot region (L≈3) near equatorial plane is occurred on time scale ≈1 hour, when, during the magnetic storm maximum, the extreme low-latitude position of auroral electrojets is reached and ring current becomes more symmetrical. Positions of both the ring current maximum and electron intensity maximum (Lmax) are consistent to our previous result: |Dst|max = 2.75 • 104/L4max. An extreme storm-time low-latitude position of the west electrojet center (for amplitudes of |Dst|max up to 600 nT) is shown to be in a good consistence with this empirical dependence. It is supposed the trapped radiation boundary collapses down to L≈Lmax in the course of the storm main phase.