Multi-Spacecraft Observations of Small Substorms

Details Multi-Spacecraft Observations of Small Substorms Multi-Spacecraft Observations of Small Substorms

May 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agusmsm41c..01p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SM41C-01

Physics

2700 Magnetospheric Physics (6939), 2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2788 Magnetic Storms And Substorms (7954)

Scientific paper

The objectives of this work are (1) to study the sequence of events in the terrestrial magnetotail during the growth phase and expansion phase onset of substorms, and (2) examine the location of the onset region in comparison with the maximum intensities and gradients in the spatial distribution of ring current ions. To accomplish these studies we utilize in-situ measurements of the plasma sheet at radial distances near 10 RE, and simultaneous measurements near 20 RE. The magnetotail measurements are provided by a pair of spacecraft; either Polar and Cluster, or Geotail and Cluster. To determine substorm timing we require observations of auroral luminosities from either the Polar or IMAGE spacecraft. Energetic neutral atoms from the inner magnetosphere observed with IMAGE are used to determine the locations of the ring current ions and to identify injections of ions. We desire that the magnetotail probes should be in the current sheet, or the high-beta plasma sheet, because it is generally anticipated that this is the region where a spacecraft is most likely to observe precursor phenomena associated with the substorm onset mechanism. One significant challenge worthy of note in this report is the fact that large and even moderate-sized substorms typically do not satisfy the constraint that the plasma-sheet monitors should be within the high-beta region near the center of the plasma sheet during growth and onset of the substorm. Thinning of the plasma sheet during such cases virtually precludes the possibility that a spacecraft will remain in that region for any useful period of time. The tail probes are much more likely to be favorably positioned during the growth phases of very small substorms. A question then arises as to whether or not the small events are sufficiently like the larger events that generalized conclusions can be drawn. We find that the smaller substorms at least sometimes exhibit features typical of larger substorms, including injection of ions into the ring current, dipolarization of the magnetic field in the near-Earth plasma sheet, and also bursts of flow associated with the dipolarization front, a feature previously reported by Frank et al., [2002].

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