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Electron Bulk Heating at Saturn's Magnetopause
Masters, A.; Kane, M.; Achilleos, N. +3 more
Magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause (MP) energizes ambient plasma via the release of magnetic energy and produces an "open" magnetosphere allowing solar wind particles to directly enter the system. At Saturn, the nature of MP reconnection remains unclear. The current study examines electron bulk heating at MP crossings, in order to probe the…
The Vertical Extent of Enhanced Densities in Cusp Like Regions of the Ionosphere of Mars
Kopf, A. J.; Withers, P.; Golden-Marx, E.
Unusually large values of peak electron density in the ionosphere of Mars are occasionally observed in cusp like regions of crustal magnetic field. These features are observed as atypical examples of oblique echoes in ionograms. However, the vertical extent over which electron density values are enhanced has not yet been determined. Furthermore, t…
Turning Instrument Background Into Science Data for Structural Features of Radiation Belts
Dandouras, I.; Rème, H.; Liemohn, M. W. +2 more
Approaches regarding how to turn the instrument background counts into scientifically valuable data are presented in this Technical Report on Methods. The background counts due to penetrating energetic particles of radiation belts detected on Cluster CIS HIA and CODIF instruments and the Double Star HIA instrument are used in these approaches. In …
Impact of the Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure on the Field-Aligned Currents in the Magnetotail: Cluster Observation
Dandouras, I.; Dunlop, M. W.; Rème, H. +6 more
We statistically investigate the influence of the solar wind dynamic pressure (SW Pdyn) on the field-aligned currents (FACs) in the magnetotail with 1,492 FAC cases from July to October in 2001 and 2004, which covers 74 Cluster crossings of the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) in both storm time and non-storm time. The FAC density in …
In Which Magnetotail Hemisphere is a Satellite? Problems Using in Situ Magnetic Field Data
Gunell, H.; Hamrin, M.; Pitkänen, T. +2 more
In Earth's magnetotail plasma sheet, the sunward tailward Bx component of the magnetic field is often used to separate the region above and below the cross tail current sheet. Using a three dimensional magneto hydrodynamic simulation, we show that high speed flows do not only affect the north south magnetic field component (causing dipo…
Quantitative Assessment of Protons During the Solar Proton Events of September 2017
Pandya, Megha; Bhaskara, Veenadhari
We present multi-spacecraft observations of the proton fluxes spanning from 1.5 to 433 MeV for the largest solar proton event of solar cycle 24, i.e., September 7 and 10, 2017. In September 2017, M5.5 flare on September 4, X9.3 flare on September 6 and X8.2 flare on September 10 gave rise to solar proton event when observed by near-Earth spacecraf…
Small-Scale Magnetic Structures: Cluster Observations
Gedalin, Michael; Walker, Simon N.; Balikhin, Michael A. +2 more
Within the inner magnetosphere, the occurrence of plasma waves and/or magnetic field structures plays an important role in the dynamics of the particle populations, accelerating some particles to higher energies while scattering others. The 2013 Cluster Inner Magnetosphere Campaign was designed to investigate this process based on observations mad…