Cluster Observations of the Flank Boundary Layer Under Northward IMF Conditions

Details Cluster Observations of the Flank Boundary Layer Under Northward IMF Conditions Cluster Observations of the Flank Boundary Layer Under Northward IMF Conditions

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufmsm32d..05f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #SM32D-05

Physics

2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2748 Magnetotail Boundary Layers, 2752 Mhd Waves And Instabilities, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

The four Cluster spacecraft made observations near the dusk flank boundary layer during a north-to-south passage at a location near X=-5 Re on November 20-21, 2001. The IMF remained quite steady and northward while a decreasing solar wind kinetic pressure moved the boundary outward and kept it near Cluster for almost 20 hours. Magnetic field and plasma measurements revealed repeated traversals between a higher-density tailward-flowing magnetosheath plasma with cool isotropic ~ 30 eV electrons and a lower density, lower-tailward-velocity boundary layer plasma with anisotropic field aligned electrons nearer 80 eV. Transitions from the boundary layer to the magnetosheath were characterized by rotations to a more northward external magnetic field. These outbound crossings were invariably better defined than those in the opposite direction. For these outbound crossings, boundary normals were determined from a minimum variance analysis on the magnetic field; these normals generally agreed within ~5 degrees at the 4 spacecraft and showed tilting of the normal toward the sunward direction as is typical for waves on the boundary. Individual transitions were seen successively at the four spacecraft with 5-20 s delays at spacecraft separation distances up to ~2000 km. The transitions back to the boundary layer occurred gradually over a period of several minutes until the next abrupt entry to the magnetosheath. This recurrence periodicity of a few minutes is that often seen for Kelvin-Helmholtz waves in this boundary region. Determinations of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability criteria will be compared with these observations.

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