Search Publications
Recent in-situ observations of magnetic reconnection in near-Earth space
Paschmann, Götz
The paper presents a brief review of recent in-situ observations of reconnection in space, with emphasis on results pertaining to the question of anti-parallel versus component reconnection, the implied spatial and temporal scales, the location of the reconnection sites, particle acceleration, reconnection rates, the dependence on plasma β, and th…
Cluster multispacecraft determination of AKR angular beaming
Pickett, J. S.; Mutel, R. L.; Christopher, I. W.
Simultaneous observations of AKR emission using the four-spacecraft Cluster array were used to make the first direct measurements of the angular beaming patterns of individual bursts. By comparing the spacecraft locations and AKR burst locations, the angular beaming pattern was found to be narrowly confined to a plane containing the magnetic field…
Magnetic double gradient mechanism for flapping oscillations of a current sheet
Semenov, V. S.; Erkaev, N. V.; Biernat, H. K.
A new kind of magnetohydrodynamic waves are analyzed for a current sheet in a presence of a small normal magnetic field component varying along the sheet. As a background, two simplified models of a current sheet are considered with a uniform and nonuniform current distributions in the current sheet. On a basis of these two models, the flapping-ty…
Electron trapping around a magnetic null
Escoubet, C. P.; Dandouras, I.; Glassmeier, K. -H. +18 more
Magnetic reconnection is an important process in astrophysical, space and laboratory plasmas. The magnetic null pair structure is theoretically suggested to be a crucial feature of the three-dimensional magnetic reconnection. The physics around the null pair, however, has not been explored in combination with the magnetic field configuration deduc…
Modulated reconnection rate and energy conversion at the magnetopause under steady IMF conditions
Dandouras, I.; Buchert, S.; Vaivads, A. +4 more
We use the multi-spacecraft mission Cluster to make observational estimates of the local energy conversion across the dayside high-latitude magnetopause. The energy conversion is estimated during eleven complete magnetopause crossings under steady south-dawnward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). We describe a new method to determine the reconne…
Retreat and reformation of X-line during quasi-continuous tailward-of-the-cusp reconnection under northward IMF
Khotyaintsev, Y.; Vaivads, A.; Hasegawa, H. +6 more
We present observations on 19-20 November 2006 by the Cluster spacecraft that were skimming the high-latitude dusk-flank magnetopause, which are consistent with more than one reconnection X-line present on the tailward side of the cusp under northward IMF. Evidence of quasi-continuous reconnection over 16 hours exists in the form of Alfvénic accel…
Small-scale, localized electromagnetic waves observed by Cluster: Result of magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions
Karlsson, T.; Streltsov, A. V.
We present results from a numerical study of small-scale, localized electromagnetic structures measured by the Cluster satellites on May 19, 2002, in the nightside magnetosphere. A comprehensive analysis of these structures by Karlsson et al. (2004), Johansson et al. (2004) and Marklund et al. (2004) demonstrates that they can be interpreted as tw…
Comparison of local energy conversion estimates from Cluster with global MHD simulations
Dandouras, I.; Buchert, S.; Vaivads, A. +3 more
The local energy conversion across the magnetopause has been estimated with Cluster for two magnetopause crossings. A load region, conversion from magnetic to particle energy, was identified on the dayside high-latitude magnetopause during south/dawnward IMF. Another crossing of the dawn flank magnetotail during dominantly duskward IMF was identif…
Pulsations of auroral kilometric radiation at Pc1 frequencies
Pickett, Jolene; Hanasz, Jan; Schreiber, Roman +1 more
Cases of AKR pulsations at frequencies 1 to 4 Hz, typical for Pc1 geomagnetic pulsations, were observed from four Cluster spacecraft. 15 events were found in years 2001-2005, with 14 occurring in a recovery phase of a strong magnetic storm. In a studied event of 22 June 2003 the AKR pulses show positive frequency drifts, corresponding to the earth…