Responses of the Plasmasphere to Impulsive Disturbance in the Magnetotail

We present a theoretical study on how the plasmasphere responses to the sudden impulses in the magnetosphere. A mechanism on how Pi 2 pulsations are excited in the magnetosphere is also proposed. When impulsive disturbances associated with the substorm onset are assumed in the magnetotail, their propagation toward the sunward direction is investigated with a wave equation. The propagation speed undergoes serious variations owing to the existence of the plasmasphere, which results in various reflection and tunneling of traveling disturbances at the plasmapause. In order to examine the effect of the plasmapause on initial impulsive disturbances, we analytically solve the wave equation based on the model of reasonable Alfven speed profile. The exact solution shows that virtual resonant states exist inside the plasmaspheric cavity. We obtain the result that these unique modes strongly persist for arbitrary incoming impulses from the source in the magnetotail, which quantitatively corresponds to the signature of PI 2 pulsations.