Ionospheric evidence for irregular reconnection and turbulent plasma flows in the magnetotail during periods of northward interplanetary magnetic field

Details Ionospheric evidence for irregular reconnection and turbulent plasma flows in the magnetotail during periods of northward interplanetary magnetic field Ionospheric evidence for irregular reconnection and turbulent plasma flows in the magnetotail during periods of northward interplanetary magnetic field

Jun 1985

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1985jgr....90.5319b&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 90, June 1, 1985, p. 5319-5325. NSF-Navy-supported research.

Physics

44

Geomagnetism, Interplanetary Magnetic Fields, Ionospheric Disturbances, Magnetic Field Configurations, Plasma Turbulence, Birkeland Currents, Boundary Layer Plasmas, Convective Flow, Geomagnetic Tail, Hall Effect, Lines Of Force, Magsat Satellites, Polar Caps, Solar Wind

Scientific paper

Magsat high resolution, three axis vector measurements of the geomagnetic field revealed that reconnection in the magnetotail is irregular. Attention was focused on the W pattern of grad-B which, in concert with the planetary electric field, forms a four-celled ion drift pattern with sunward flow in the central polar cap and antisunward flow around it, reversing to sunward at low latitudes. The W shape is seasonal, having a more defined structure pattern in the summer hemisphere, and hard to find in the winter hemisphere. The pattern is associated with a weak ionospheric Hall current at altitudes over 600 km. The pattern is associated with a weak ionospheric Hall current at altitudes over 600 km. The data are taken to indicate the presence of two-cell reverse convection patterns over the polar caps of both hemispheres and parallel to the dawn-dusk meridian. An irregular reconnection process produced in the plasma sheet by the opposing dawn-dusk and dusk-dawn electric fields distorts the polar cells on the tail side of the sunlit hemisphere and throughout the nightside. The disturbance causes turbulence in the electric field and the Birkeland current signature, possibly in terms of sun-aligned arcs.

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