Consequences of a magnetospheric plasma

Abstract

We explore the hypothesis that, in some cases, instabilities in the magnetospheric plasma create the maximum dissipation available to them. In the case of pitch‐angle diffusion instabilities, the tendency toward isotropy on auroral lines of force is evidence for strong pitch‐angle diffusion. The location of the auroral precipitation boundary may be computed by balancing convection with strong‐diffusion precipitation. The radial diffusion required to balance precipitation losses of energetic protons and electrons in the Van Allen zone could approach the Bohm diffusion rate, probably another maximum dissipation limit, at least for instabilities in the drift scaling.