Search Publications
Dipolarization fronts in the magnetotail plasma sheet
Russell, C. T.; Glassmeier, K. -H.; Nakamura, R. +12 more
We present a THEMIS study of a dipolarization front associated with a bursty bulk flow (BBF) that was observed in the central plasma sheet sequentially at X=-20.1, -16.7, and -11.0 RE. Simultaneously, the THEMIS ground network observed the formation of a north-south auroral form and intensification of westward auroral zone currents. Tim…
The role of suprathermal particle measurements in CrossScale studies of collisionless plasma processes
Davies, Jackie; Hapgood, Mike; Perry, Chris +1 more
The CrossScale mission will advance our understanding of fundamental plasma processes in collisionless plasmas. It will exploit the excellent natural plasma laboratory provided by the Earth's magnetosphere and the near-Earth solar wind and, in particular, carry out multi-scale studies that will strongly complement plasma studies in ground-based la…
High kinetic energy density jets in the Earth’s magnetosheath: A case study
Amata, E.; Bogdanova, Y. V.; Marcucci, M. F. +4 more
We study several high kinetic energy density jets observed during a traversal of the dayside magnetosheath by the Cluster spacecraft on March 17, 2001, at various distances from the magnetopause, generally characterised by anomalously high values of the local magnetosonic Mach number. We concentrate on two jets observed just outside the magnetopau…
Flushing effect in reconnection: Effects of minority species of oxygen ions
Kistler, L. M.; Mouikis, C. G.; Daughton, W. +2 more
Effects of O + ions on magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail are examined in a Harris equilibrium using a combination of linear Vlasov theory and large-scale driven and non-driven two-dimensional fully kinetic particle simulations. Linear theory of multiple species plasma indicates that the growth rate is rather insensitive to the co…
State studies of Earth's plasmasphere: A review
Singh, A. K.; Singh, R. P.; Siingh, Devendraa
The plasmasphere sandwiched between the ionosphere and the outer magnetosphere is populated by up flow of ionospheric cold (∼1 eV) and dense plasma along geomagnetic field lines. Recent observations from various instruments onboard IMAGE and CLUSTER spacecrafts have made significant advances in our understanding of plasma density irregularities, p…
Multi-spacecraft study of foreshock cavitons upstream of the quasi-parallel bow shock
Kajdič, Primož; Russell, Christopher T.; Blanco-Cano, Xochitl +1 more
In this work we perform the first multi-spacecraft analysis of two foreshock cavitons observed by the Cluster spacecraft. We also study the characteristics of their surrounding regions. Foreshock cavitons are a relatively new type of phenomena in the Earth's foreshock. They appear in regions deep inside the foreshock and are therefore always immer…
A case study of Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices on both flanks of the Earth's magnetotail
Retinò, Alessandro; Dandouras, Iannis; Saito, Yoshifumi +8 more
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) is a fundamental fluid dynamical process that develops in a velocity shear layer. It is excited on the tail-flanks of the Earth's magnetosphere where the flowing magnetosheath plasma and the stagnant magnetospheric plasma sit adjacent to each other. This instability is thought to induce vortical structures and pl…
Foreshock cavities and internal foreshock boundaries
Schwartz, Steven J.; Billingham, Laurence; Wilber, Mark
We present two case studies of cluster encounters with foreshock cavities. For one event, we are able, for the first time, to accurately relate the observation of a foreshock cavity to the measured position of the bow shock. This allows us to compute the shock angle, a vital parameter in models of foreshock cavity formation, with greater confidenc…
Study of inertial kinetic Alfven waves around cusp region
Agarwal, P.; Varma, P.; Tiwari, M. S.
The effect of electron inertia on kinetic Alfven wave has been studied. The expressions for the dispersion relation, growth/damping rate and growth/damping length of the inertial kinetic Alfven wave (IKAW) are derived using the kinetic approach in cusp region. The Vlasov-kinetic theory has been adopted to evaluate the dispersion relation, growth/d…
On the effect of line current width and relative position on the multi-spacecraft curlometer technique
Fazakerley, A. N.; Lester, M.; Owen, C. J. +2 more
The response of the multi-spacecraft curlometer technique to variations in the size and relative position of infinitely long line currents with radially varying current density is systematically investigated for spacecraft in a regular tetrahedral formation. It is shown that, for line currents with a width less than the spacecraft separation, ther…