Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsm21c..01p&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SM21C-01
Physics
2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, 2728 Magnetosheath, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection
Scientific paper
This study examines the location of the reconnection site on the magnetopause for conditions of northward IMF. Ion distribution functions are obtained from the Toroidal Imaging Mass, Angle Spectrometer (TIMAS) instrument during passes through the dayside cusp region by the NASA/GGS Polar spacecraft when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was steady and northward. Ion cutoff velocities are used in conjunction with the Onsager et al. (GRL, 1990) formula to estimate the distance from the Polar spacecraft to the site of reconnection. The Tsyganenko 1996 magnetospheric magnetic field model is used to map these determined distances along the magnetospheric magnetic field to the magnetopause. It is found that nearly all of these reconnection sites lie tailward of the cusp, in places for which the magnetosheath flow is considered to be super-Alfvenic (using hydrodynamic theory and a magnetosheath magnetic field model). Different scenarios are discussed, including the possibility of the existence of a non-stationary reconnection site, and the existence of a plasma depletion layer which acts to significantly reduce the magnetosheath Alfven speed close to the magnetopause. From the observations and mapped reconnection locations, we also estimate by how much the ion density must decrease (and the magnetic field increases) in the plasma depletion layer in order that the reconnection locations lie in sub-Alfvenic magnetosheath flow.
Fuselier Stephen A.
Petrinec Steven M.
Trattner K. J.
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