Relationship between Consecutive Bursts of Pi 2 Pulsations and Substorm Onsets

Details Relationship between Consecutive Bursts of Pi 2 Pulsations and Substorm Onsets Relationship between Consecutive Bursts of Pi 2 Pulsations and Substorm Onsets

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm12b..11c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM12B-11

Physics

2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

The relationship between consecutive bursts of Pi 2 pulsations and substorm onsets is examined with both ground and satellite magnetic data. The magnetograms from the CANOPUS array show the occurrence of two substorm onsets on May 5, 1999, accompanied by successive Pi 2 bursts seen in the IGPP/LANL array. Analysis of the auroral electrojet location and current intensity as induced from the Churchill line in the CANOPUS array shows that the second onset occurs poleward of the first one. ACE and Wind magnetic field data show that the first Pi 2 burst occurs after a period of weak southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and the second burst about an hour later when the IMF has become horizontal. Magnetic disturbances at GOES-8 and GOES-10 confirm for each Pi 2 event the occurrence of disturbances like those expected from the substorm current wedge. Meanwhile from the IMP-8 observations in the magnetotail, the decreases of the total and x components of the magnetic field imply that removal of magnetic flux from the tail has occurred during these events. We interpret consecutive bursts of Pi 2 pulsations in terms of the two-neutral-point model by Russell [2000]. In addition, 12 events of consecutive Pi 2 bursts were selected from magnetic field data obtained by the SMALL Array in 1999. Observations with ACE and Wind satellite show that the first Pi 2 burst occurs significantly after the southward turning of the IMF and the second Pi 2 occurs shortly thereafter often, but not always, after a northward turning of the IMF. Thus the first Pi 2 burst is not a signature of the beginning of the flux transfer to the tail but perhaps signals the initial onset of reconnection in the tail. The interplanetary data can be used to estimate the amount of reconnected magnetic flux transported to the tail. The delay time of two consecutive Pi 2 bursts is correlated with this estimated flux pileup. If the second burst of Pi 2 signals the onset of reconnection of the open field lines in the tail lobes, then this observation implies that the rate of reconnection of the closed field lines in the plasma sheet is more rapid the greater is the rate of reconnection at the nose. Thus we would expect plasmoids to be created more quickly for strong southward IMF than for weakly southward IMF.

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