Observations of the Magnetotail Reconnection Rate: its Relationship to the Occurence of Auroral Poleward Boundary Intensifications (PBIs) and to the Substorm Cycle

Details Observations of the Magnetotail Reconnection Rate: its Relationship to the Occurence of Auroral Poleward Boundary Intensifications (PBIs) and to the Substorm Cycle Observations of the Magnetotail Reconnection Rate: its Relationship to the Occurence of Auroral Poleward Boundary Intensifications (PBIs) and to the Substorm Cycle

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufmsm13c..04l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #SM13C-04

Physics

2407 Auroral Ionosphere (2704), 2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2744 Magnetotail, 2780 Solar Wind Interactions With Unmagnetized Bodies, 2788 Storms And Substorms

Scientific paper

Bursty bulk flows (BBFs) account for a significant fraction of the transport of energy, momentum, and magnetic flux through the central plasma sheet. The ionospheric signature of BBFs is believed to be N-S equatorward-extending auroral PBIs known as `auroral streamers'. Such auroral PBIs originate near the polar cap boundary (PCB) and often repeat on a characteristic timescale of ˜ 10 minutes. However, only one case study has been published so far that presents simultaneous and co-located observations of auroral PBIs and reconnecting flows in the ionosphere (de la Beaujardì {e}re et al., 1994), and only some of the PBIs observed were associated with bursts of magnetotail reconnection. This study quantifies the temporal variation of the nightside magnetic reconnection rate at a single meridian for two periods exhibiting auroral PBIs: (i) a quiet/recovery phase interval on 20 February 2001 and (ii) an interval encompassing two substorm cycles on 12 December 2001. We make our calculation using two-dimensional (2D) optical data and 2D plasma flow vectors. The plasma flows used are the merge vectors from the SuperDARN HF radars Saskatoon and Kapuskasing. Their fields-of-view (FOVs) overlap the FOV of the Aqsaniq all-sky imager (ASI) at Rankin Inlet, part of the NORSTAR array. The PCB is derived from the latitudinal profile of 630 nm ASI data, and supported by proxies of the PCB derived from SuperDARN HF radar spectral width boundaries and POLAR VIS and UVI data. PBI activity is simply identified from 630 nm emissions above a threshold intensity, within a specified distance from the PCB and clearly separate from lower latitude intensifications. During the quiet/recovery phase interval, we observe localised reconnection flows associated with PBIs, evidence that supports the idea that BBFs are reconnection driven. During the substorm expansion phase, enhanced magnetic reconnection is observed of about 40 mV/m. On-going nightside magnetic reconnection, however, is also observed in the hours prior to the substorm onset, whilst on-going but intermittent dayside reconnection is occuring.

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