Sounding the Magnetopause Surface in Three-Dimensions with Cluster/RAPID

Details Sounding the Magnetopause Surface in Three-Dimensions with Cluster/RAPID Sounding the Magnetopause Surface in Three-Dimensions with Cluster/RAPID

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm22a0795o&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM22A-0795

Computer Science

Sound

2720 Energetic Particles, Trapped, 2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2731 Magnetosphere: Outer, 2794 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

We present new results using simultaneously energetic particle observations from multiple spacecrafts to remotely sound the high-latitude magnetopause in three-dimensions. The imaging energetic particle spectrometer RAPID onboard the four Cluster spacecrafts covers the unit sphere in velocity space for energetic electrons and different ion species. Less than two gyro radii away from an absorbing boundary a trapped particle distribution will get non-gyrotropic, as particles start to cross the boundary. Knowing the magnetic field and the particle mass and energy, it is possible from one spacecraft to derive the direction and distance to the magnetopause just by examining the azimuthal distribution of locally mirroring particles. Combining observations from at least three spacecrafts gives a three-dimensional picture of the magnetopause surface. We have performed this analysis for the first January 14, 2001, high-latitude boundary layer crossing event. Using three spacecrafts the very first results give a consistent overall picture of how the magnetopause boundary is coming towards, just passing, and then retreating away from the spacecrafts. This clearly illustrates that the magnetopause ion sounding technique can be used to remotely study the three-dimensional orientation and location of the magnetopause surface. We also hope to perform a more detailed study taking advantage of the different particle species and energies measured by RAPID.

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