Temporal Evolution of O+ Population in the Near‐Earth Plasma Sheet During Geomagnetic Storms As Observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

During geomagnetic storms, the increase in energy input into the ionosphere in the form of Poynting flux and electron precipitation leads to an enhanced ionospheric outflow that results in an increase of the O+ content in the magnetosphere. Using different missions and instrumentation, two main ionospheric sources have been identified for the oxygen ions reaching the inner magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms: the dayside cusp, and the night side auroral region. Evidence of both pathways have been presented in the literature. However, the relative contribution of each of these pathways to the enhancement of O+ observed in near-Earth plasma sheet, as well as the dynamics involved during the development of geomagnetic storms remains an open question. Here, we present the first statistical study to date to address this question, in the form of a superposed epoch analysis of O+ and H+ moments obtained by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission throughout the main phase of 90 geomagnetic storms with a minimum SYM-H of at least -50 nT. The results show a clear increase in the oxygen density in the near-Earth plasma sheet, with values further from Earth remaining low. Temperature values for both species show an increase with the progress of the storms. These results combined suggest that, during the main phase of geomagnetic storms, most of the oxygen ions observed in the near-Earth plasma sheet are traveling directly from the nightside auroral region.