Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm51a1382l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM51A-1382
Physics
2700 Magnetospheric Physics (6939), 2731 Magnetosphere: Outer, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431), 2744 Magnetotail, 2764 Plasma Sheet
Scientific paper
The four Cluster satellites have near-identical polar orbits with equatorial perigees and apogees about 4 and 19 RE, respectively, and travel in close formation. Three of them have working ion mass spectrometers (CIS/CODIF) for energies below 40 keV/e. Near perigee the plasma sheet ion density has an enhanced core at L < 6, where ion number flux versus energy remains virtually invariant between the successive samplings 25 and 35 min apart and is comparable for H+ and O+ ions. Bulk motion is dominated by longitudinal drifts, except during occasional slow intrusions of new plasma from larger L. Outside of this core, toward (dipole) L of 15 and beyond, the flux is dominated by the H+, by an order of magnitude or more (past solar max), especially above 1 keV. It is finely structured and varies greatly between satellites. This is also where ion outflows are most intense and energetic, often reaching above 1 keV. Near apogee the ion flux is again dominated by the H+, but there is surprisingly little difference in intensity and spatial extent between the typical population at the tail midplane and numerous structures at larger latitude. Of 60 nightside apogee traversals in 2002, only one finds a fairly homogenous central plasma sheet embedded between almost empty tail lobes. During most of the others the satellites encounter a dozen or more distinct and near-isotropic energetic flux structures, often widely separated. Differences between the satellites indicate significant transverse spatial gradients over a fraction of one RE.
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