Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm12c..07e&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM12C-07
Physics
2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2760 Plasma Convection, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
In the interval from 23:10 UT on 20 February through at least 00:30 on 21 February, 2001, Cluster was inbound crossing the southern cusp. The four spacecraft were first in a northward magnetosheath field with |B| ~ 35 - 40 nT, BZ > 0, and BY < 0. However, lagged solar wind observations from ACE reveal that the magnetosheath field turned southward just before Cluster entered the cusp, identified as a region of lower average field strength (10 - 20 nT). Then the spacecraft entered the tail lobe, with southwardly-oriented field and velocity dispersed ions traveling tailward. The cusp traversal lasted roughly 15 minutes, during which large field excursions and significant ion flow changes occurred. Three distinct southward ion flow bursts (Δ VZ ~ 130 km/s) were observed, each lasting 2 - 3 minutes, each associated with northward field excursions (Δ BZ ~ 40 nT). In the first two bursts there are also large BY variations as well. The distinctive magnetic field and ion plasma flow changes suggest that these events may be related to transient reconnection due to the new southward orientation of the IMF. Between 2310 and 2350 UT, FAST crossed from the dayside plasma sheet through boundary layer/polar cap in the early afternoon sector at altitudes between 3000 and 4000 km. Though not at the cusp, the FAST magnetic stress/ionospheric convection observations qualitatively agree with the Weimer convection model for the southward IMF conditions at this time.
Balogh André
Cargill Peter
Cattell Cynthia A.
Dunlop Malcolm W.
Elphic Richard C.
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