Cluster Observations of Particle Structures on Field Lines Mapping to Active Auroral Regions

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2451 Particle Acceleration, 2704 Auroral Phenomena (2407), 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

We present observations from the Cluster spacecraft during a plasma sheet exit near 03:00 local time on 14 January 2001, while the spacecraft were crossing field lines that mapped to active auroral regions. We have used this unique multi-spacecraft configuration to determine boundary normal orientations and speeds, and find that transitions between plasma regions resulted from motions that suggest an unexpected, complex layering of these domains. The particle data reveal coarse-scale structures encountered by all four spacecraft, as well as fine-scale structures which were unique to each. The exit from the plasma sheet into a lobe-like region occurred in steps, with the spacecraft first encountering a thin lower-energy plasma sheet domain, followed ~1 minute later by entry into a low-density region. After a few more minutes the spacecraft entered another region with a very low density of >15eV particles, although changes in the spacecraft potentials indicated a return to original plasma sheet densities near 1~cm-3. Outstreaming ionspheric O+ were seen over an interval starting minutes before the thin, lower-energy plasma sheet layer, and continuing through most of the low-density region. The transition to the lower-energy region was accompanied by an Alfvenic structure having an Earthward-directed Poynting flux, outflowing He+, and an increase in the outstreaming O+, indicating a direct relationship between the inflowing wave energy and the outstreaming particles.

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