Search Publications
Furthering our understanding of electrostatic solitary waves through Cluster multispacecraft observations and theory
Gurnett, D. A.; Lakhina, G. S.; Tsurutani, B. T. +9 more
Nonlinear isolated electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) are observed routinely at many of Earth’s major boundaries by the Wideband Data (WBD) plasma wave receivers that are mounted on the four Cluster satellites. The current study discusses two aspects of ESWs: their characteristics in the magnetosheath, and their propagation in the magnetosheath a…
A statistical study of hot flow anomalies using Cluster data
Dandouras, I.; Daly, P. W.; Facskó, G. +3 more
Hot flow anomalies (HFAs) are studied using observations of the RAPID suprathermal charged particle detector, the FGM magnetometer, and the CIS plasma detector aboard the four Cluster spacecraft. Previously, we studied several specific features of tangential discontinuities on the basis of Cluster measurements in February-April 2003. In this paper…
The evolution of mirror type magnetic fluctuations in the magnetosheath based on multipoint observations
Balogh, A.; Dandouras, I.; Erdős, G. +1 more
Two orbits were selected in January February 2006 when the separation between the Cluster spacecraft was large and mirror type magnetic field fluctuations were observed by all spacecraft in different regions of the terrestrial magnetosheath. Minimum variance analysis was applied to find the mirror type fluctuations, and the amplitude of the fluctu…
Two sources of magnetosheath ions observed by Cluster in the mid-altitude polar cusp
Berchem, J.; Escoubet, C. P.; Pitout, F. +10 more
Double cusps have been observed on a few occasions by polar orbiting spacecraft and ground-based observatories. The four Cluster spacecraft observed two distinct regions, showing characteristics of a double cusp, during a mid-altitude cusp pass on 7 August 2004. The Wind spacecraft detected a southward turning of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field …
Understanding magnetotail current sheet meso-scale structures using MHD simulations
El-Alaoui, Mostafa; Ashour-Abdalla, Maha; Richard, Robert L. +1 more
Recent Cluster observations have strongly supported the existence of meso-scale structure in the magnetotail current sheet. In our study, a magnetohydrodynamic simulation event study exhibited current sheet behavior comparable to that seen in the Cluster observations. Geotail and DoubleStar observations also show that the simulation is providing a…
Study of waves in the magnetotail region with cluster and DSP
Balogh, A.; Zhang, T. L.; Klecker, B. +6 more
The study of the neutral sheet is of fundamental importance in understanding the dynamics of the Earth’s magnetosphere. From the earliest observation of the magnetotail, it has been found that the neutral sheet frequently appears to be in motion due to changing solar wind conditions and geomagnetic activity. Multiple crossings of the neutral sheet…
Determination of reconnected flux via remote sensing
Penz, T.; Kubyshkin, I. V.; Nakamura, R. +4 more
Magnetic reconnection is one of the most fundamental processes in the magnetosphere. We present here a simple method to determine the essential parameters of reconnection such as reconnected flux and location of the reconnection site out of single spacecraft data via remote sensing. On the basis of a time-dependent reconnection model, the dependen…
Modeling PSBL high speed ion beams observed by Cluster and Double Star
Bosqued, Jean-Michel; El-Alaoui, Mostafa; Walker, Raymond J. +3 more
On October 8, 2004, the Cluster and Double Star spacecraft crossed the near-Earth (12 19 RE) magnetotail neutral sheet during the recovery phase of a small, isolated substorm. Although they were separated in distance by ∼7 RE and in time by ∼30 min, both Cluster and Double Star observed steady, but highly structured Earthward…
Calibration techniques for magnetometers implementing on-board de-spinning algorithms
Balogh, A.; Lucek, E.; Dunlop, M. W. +4 more
The Fluxgate Magnetometer experiments on-board the European Space Agency’s four spacecraft Cluster Mission have the capability to store sampled magnetic field vectors in the instrument memory, either as a full resolution ‘event capture’ or as spin-resolution vectors transformed into a non-spinning co-ordinate system (de-spun). The latter capabilit…
Plasma sheet oscillations and their relation to substorm development: Cluster and double star TC1 case study
Zhang, T. L.; Klecker, B.; Nakamura, R. +11 more
We examined two consecutive plasma sheet oscillation and dipolarization events observed by Cluster in the magnetotail, which are associated with a pseudo-breakup and a small substorm monitored by the IMAGE spacecraft. Energy input from the solar wind and an associated enhancement of the cross-tail current lead to current sheet thinning and plasma …