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Cassini observations of ionospheric plasma in Saturn's magnetotail lobes
Coates, A. J.; Dougherty, M. K.; Reisenfeld, D. B. +8 more
Studies of Saturn's magnetosphere with the Cassini mission have established the importance of Enceladus as the dominant mass source for Saturn's magnetosphere. It is well known that the ionosphere is an important mass source at Earth during periods of intense geomagnetic activity, but lesser attention has been dedicated to study the ionospheric ma…
Is the flow-aligned component of IMF really able to impact the magnetic field structure of Venusian magnetotail?
Barabash, S.; Futaana, Y.; Wei, Y. +5 more
An earlier statistical survey suggested that the flow-aligned component of upstream interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) may play an important role in controlling the lobe asymmetries of the Venusian magnetotail. The tail current sheet would be displaced and the magnetic field configuration would show asymmetries with respect to the current sheet. …
Plasma observations during the Mars atmospheric "plume" event of March-April 2012
Gurnett, D. A.; Barabash, S.; Holmström, M. +10 more
We present initial analyses and conclusions from plasma observations made during the reported "Mars plume event" of March-April 2012. During this period, multiple independent amateur observers detected a localized, high-altitude "plume" over the Martian dawn terminator, the cause of which remains to be explained. The estimated brightness of the pl…
Solar wind plasma entry observed by cluster in the high-latitude magnetospheric lobes
Dunlop, M. W.; Facskó, G.; Sun, W. J. +10 more
Using the Cluster data during the period from January to April between 2001 and 2006, we find an observation of solar wind entry due to magnetic reconnection occurred in the terrestrial high-latitude magnetospheric lobes, tailward of the cusps under northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Occurrence rate of solar wind entry events in this s…
A statistical study of magnetospheric electron density using the Cluster spacecraft
Dandouras, I.; Sandhu, J. K.; Yeoman, T. K. +1 more
Observations from the WHISPER (Waves of High frequency and Sounder for Probing of Electron density by Relaxation) instrument on board Cluster, for the interval spanning 2001-2012, are utilized to determine an empirical model describing the total electron density along closed geomagnetic field lines. The model, representing field lines in the regio…
The particle carriers of field-aligned currents in the Earth's magnetotail during a substorm
Dandouras, I.; Kistler, L. M.; Dunlop, M. +4 more
Although the particle carriers of field-aligned currents (FACs) in the Earth's magnetotail play an important role in the transfer of momentum and energy between the solar wind, magnetosphere, and ionosphere, the characteristics of the FAC carriers have been poorly understood. Taking advantage of multiinstrument magnetic field and plasma data colle…
Suprathermal electron penetration into the inner magnetosphere of Saturn
Lewis, G. R.; Coates, A. J.; Thomsen, M. F. +3 more
For most Cassini passes through the inner magnetosphere of Saturn, the hot electron population (> few hundred eVs) largely disappears inside of some cutoff L shell. Anode-and-actuation-angle averages of hot electron fluxes observed by the Cassini Electron Spectrometer are binned into 0.1 Rs bins in dipole L to explore the properties …
Where and when does reconnection occur in the tail?
McPherron, Robert L.
We comment on the question of when and where reconnection begins in the tail and how it is related to the onset of auroral expansion. This question was addressed in a workshop dedicated to Unsolved Problems in Magnetospheric Physics held in Scarborough, UK, in September 2015. The answer is that it typically occurs first in the midtail a little bey…
Comparative ionospheric impacts and solar origins of nine strong geomagnetic storms in 2010-2015
Wood, Brian E.; Wang, Yi-Ming; Lean, Judith L. +1 more
For nine of the strongest geomagnetic storms in solar cycle 24 we characterize, quantify, and compare the impacts on ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and the U.S. Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) with the heliospheric morphology and kinematics of the responsible coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their solar source regions. Regional TEC…
Longitudinal and local time asymmetries of magnetospheric turbulence in Saturn's plasma sheet
Saur, Joachim; von Papen, Michael
Based on earlier studies that have shown Saturn's middle magnetosphere to contain turbulent magnetic field fluctuations, we analyze the spatial and temporal variations of the magnetic fluctuations and turbulent heating rate as a function of local time and magnetic phase. The region of study is Saturn's plasma sheet at a distance of 6-20 Rs