Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm51d..05l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM51D-05
Physics
[2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [2764] Magnetospheric Physics / Plasma Sheet, [2790] Magnetospheric Physics / Substorms
Scientific paper
We performed a statistical study testing how substorm triggering and unloading is affected by the heavy ion content of the magnetotail plasma sheet. During a substorm, magnetic flux is accumulated in the tail lobes until the magnetotail reaches an unstable state. A near-earth neutral line then forms and this excess flux is reconnected. Because increased lobe magnetic flux increases the magnetopause flaring angle, the increase and decrease in lobe magnetic flux can be monitored by observing the increase and decrease in the magnetotail pressure. Using Cluster data from 2001-2004, we have determined how the maximum pressure (or flaring angle) and the rate of change of pressure (or flaring angle) during substorms depend on the O+ content of the plasma sheet. The rate of change of pressure gives a proxy for the rate of reconnection. To validate this proxy we have also compared the magnetotail pressure changes to the changes in the magnetic flux in the polar cap, another indicator of the amount of open flux in the tail lobes. Our results show that the maximum pressure and the rate of change in the pressure are positively correlated with the amount of O+ in the plasma sheet. When the pressure and rate of pressure change are normalized to the external pressure, the correlations are much weaker, but the rate of change of the normalized pressure (equivalent to the flaring angle) is still faster when there is more O+. This is counter to the expectation of fluid theory.
Dandouras Iannis S.
Kistler Lynn M.
Klecker Berndt
Liu Ya-Ying
Milan Stephen E.
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