Search Publications
Electron scattering by magnetosonic waves in the inner magnetosphere
Hospodarsky, G. B.; Kurth, W. S.; Ma, Qianli +4 more
We investigate the importance of electron scattering by magnetosonic waves in the Earth's inner magnetosphere. A statistical survey of the magnetosonic wave amplitude and wave frequency spectrum, as a function of geomagnetic activity, is performed using the Van Allen Probes wave measurements and is found to be generally consistent with the wave di…
Electrostatic solitary waves and electrostatic waves at the magnetopause
André, M.; Vaivads, A.; Khotyaintsev, Yu. V. +1 more
Electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) are characterized by localized bipolar electric fields parallel to the magnetic field and are frequently observed in space plasmas. In this paper a study of ESWs and field-aligned electrostatic waves, which do not exhibit localized bipolar fields, near the magnetopause is presented using the Cluster spacecraft. …
Suprathermal particle energization in dipolarization fronts: Particle-in-cell simulations
Angelopoulos, V.; Fu, Huishan; Lu, San
Within dipolarization fronts (DFs) in the Earth's magnetotail, significant magnetic energy is converted to plasma energy, and a significant portion of the electrons and ions therein are accelerated to suprathermal energies. The mechanism that produces these suprathermal particles while simultaneously reducing magnetic field energy is poorly unders…
Identifying magnetic reconnection events using the FOTE method
Vaivads, A.; Cao, J. B.; Dunlop, M. +8 more
A magnetic reconnection event detected by Cluster is analyzed using three methods: Single-spacecraft Inference based on Flow-reversal Sequence (SIFS), Multispacecraft Inference based on Timing a Structure (MITS), and the First-Order Taylor Expansion (FOTE). Using the SIFS method, we find that the reconnection structure is an X line; while using th…
Whistler emission in the separatrix regions of asymmetric magnetic reconnection
André, M.; Vaivads, A.; Khotyaintsev, Yu. V. +1 more
At Earth's dayside magnetopause asymmetric magnetic reconnection occurs between the cold dense magnetosheath plasma and the hot tenuous magnetospheric plasma, which differs significantly from symmetric reconnection. During magnetic reconnection the separatrix regions are potentially unstable to a variety of instabilities. In this paper observation…
Two types of whistler waves in the hall reconnection region
Vaivads, A.; Retino, A.; Sahraoui, F. +13 more
Whistler waves are believed to play an important role during magnetic reconnection. Here we report the near-simultaneous occurrence of two types of the whistler-mode waves in the magnetotail Hall reconnection region. The first type is observed in the magnetic pileup region of downstream and propagates away to downstream along the field lines and i…
The inner magnetosphere ion composition and local time distribution over a solar cycle
Kistler, L. M.; Mouikis, C. G.
Using the Cluster/Composition and Distribution Function (CODIF) analyzer data set from 2001 to 2013, a full solar cycle, we determine the ion distributions for H+, He+, and O+ in the inner magnetosphere (L < 12) over the energy range 40 eV to 40 keV as a function magnetic local time, solar EUV (F10.7)…
Hall effect control of magnetotail dawn-dusk asymmetry: A three-dimensional global hybrid simulation
Artemyev, A. V.; Pritchett, P. L.; Wang, X. Y. +4 more
Magnetotail reconnection and related phenomena (e.g., flux ropes, dipolarizing flux bundles, flow bursts, and particle injections) occur more frequently on the duskside than on the dawnside. Because this asymmetry can directly result in dawn-dusk asymmetric space weather effects, uncovering its physical origin is important for better understanding…
Impacts of spontaneous hot flow anomalies on the magnetosheath and magnetopause
Berchem, J.; Zhang, H.; Omidi, N. +1 more
Spacecraft observations and global hybrid (kinetic ions and fluid electrons) simulations have demonstrated that ion dissipation processes at the quasi-parallel bow shock are associated with the formation of structures called spontaneous hot flow anomalies (SHFAs). Previous simulations and recent spacecraft observations have also established that S…
A statistical study of EMIC waves observed by Cluster: 2. Associated plasma conditions
André, M.; Klecker, B.; Kistler, L. M. +6 more
This is the second in a pair of papers discussing a statistical study of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves detected during 10 years (2001-2010) of Cluster observations. In the first paper, an analysis of EMIC wave properties (i.e., wave power, polarization, normal angle, and wave propagation angle) is presented in both the magnetic latitu…