Search Publications
Solar Wind Current Sheets: MVA Inaccuracy and Recommended Single-Spacecraft Methodology
Wang, R.; Phan, T. D.; Mozer, F. S. +1 more
We present the analysis of 1,831 current sheets (CS) observed aboard four Cluster spacecraft in a pristine solar wind. Four-spacecraft estimates of the CS normal and propagation velocity are compared with different single-spacecraft estimates. The Minimum Variance Analysis (MVA) of the magnetic field is shown to be highly inaccurate in estimating …
New Chorus Diffusion Coefficients for Radiation Belt Modeling
Meredith, Nigel P.; Wong, Jin-Mann; Horne, Richard B. +2 more
Whistler mode chorus is an important magnetospheric wave emission playing a major role in radiation belt dynamics, where it contributes to both the acceleration and loss of relativistic electrons. In this study we compute bounce and drift averaged chorus diffusion coefficients for 3.0 < L* < 6.0, using the TS04 external magnetic field model,…
Storm-Time Very-Near-Earth Magnetotail Reconnection: A Statistical Perspective
Angelopoulos, V.; Beyene, F.
The ring current, an equatorial near-Earth current, fluctuates in response to solar wind plasma interactions with Earth's magnetosphere. Despite extensive research on storm-time ring current energization, direct evidence of the energy transport into the inner-magnetosphere that powers this current remains scarce. Recent observations revealing that…
Key Factors Determining Nightside Energetic Electron Losses Driven by Whistler-Mode Waves
Ma, Qianli; Zhang, Xiao-Jia; Agapitov, Oleksiy +4 more
Energetic electron losses by pitch-angle scattering and precipitation to the atmosphere from the radiation belts are controlled, to a great extent, by resonant wave particle interactions with whistler-mode waves. The efficacy of such precipitation is primarily modulated by wave intensity, although its relative importance, compared to other wave an…
Spacecraft Outgassing Observed by the BepiColombo Ion Spectrometers
André, N.; Cornet, T.; Orsini, S. +19 more
During the first flyby of the BepiColombo composite spacecraft at Mercury in October 2021 ion spectrometers observed two intense spectral lines with energies between 10 and 70 eV. The spectral lines persisted also at larger distances from Mercury and were observed again at lower intensity during cruise phase in March 2022 and at the second and thi…
Reconnection Inside a Dipolarization Front of a Diverging Earthward Fast Flow
Escoubet, C. P.; Fazakerley, A. N.; Le Contel, O. +18 more
We examine a Dipolarization Front (DF) event with an embedded electron diffusion region (EDR), observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft on 08 September 2018 at 14:51:30 UT in the Earth's magnetotail by applying multi-scale multipoint analysis methods. In order to study the large-scale context of this DF, we use conjunction observ…
Sinuous Aurora at Mars: A Link to the Tail Current Sheet?
Ramstad, Robin; Lillis, Robert J.; Deighan, Justin +18 more
We examine the newly discovered phenomena of sinuous aurora on the nightside of Mars, using images of 130.4 and 135.6 nm oxygen emission measured by the Emirates Mars Mission EMUS ultraviolet spectrograph, and upstream measurements from the MAVEN and Mars Express spacecraft. They are detected in ∼3% of observations, totaling 73 clear detections. T…
Determining the Influence of the IMF and Planetary Magnetic Field Models on Mercury's Magnetosphere Along Spacecraft Trajectories of MESSENGER, BepiColombo and MPO
Heyner, Daniel; Exner, Willi; Griton, Léa. S.
Mercury's planetary magnetic field models (PMFMs) agree on a majorly dipolar field structure with a northward shift of the magnetic equator. However, due to the northerly biased orbit coverage of past spacecraft missions and different data analyzing methods, the available PMFMs differ in the determined multipole magnitudes for the dipole, quadrupo…
Influence of the Jovian Current Sheet Models on the Mapping of the UV Auroral Footprints of Io, Europa, and Ganymede
André, N.; Hue, V.; Rabia, J. +4 more
The in situ characterization of moon-magnetosphere interactions at Jupiter and the mapping of moon auroral footpaths require accurate global models of the magnetospheric magnetic field. In this study, we compare the ability of two widely-used current sheet models, Khurana-2005 (KK2005) and Connerney-2020 (CON2020) combined with the most recent int…
Global Environmental Constraints on Magnetic Reconnection at the Magnetopause From In Situ Measurements
Lavraud, B.; Génot, V.; Jeandet, A. +5 more
Progress in locating the X-line on the magnetopause beyond the atypical due south interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) condition is hampered by the fact that the global plasma and field spatial distributions constraining where reconnection could develop on the magnetopause are poorly known. This work presents global maps of the magnetic shear, curr…