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Extended Magnetic Reconnection across the Dayside Magnetopause
Berchem, J.; Lavraud, B.; Wild, J. A. +18 more
The extent of where magnetic reconnection (MR), the dominant process responsible for energy and plasma transport into the magnetosphere, operates across Earth’s dayside magnetopause has previously been only indirectly shown by observations. We report the first direct evidence of X-line structure resulting from the operation of MR at each of two wi…
Locations of boundaries of outer and inner radiation belts as observed by Cluster and Double Star
Dandouras, I.; Cao, J.; Ganushkina, N. Yu +1 more
Cluster CIS ion spectrograms measured during the period of the recent solar minimum between April 2007 and June 2009, when Cluster was deep in the radiation belts with its perigee as close as L = 2, are analyzed. The analysis is complemented by Double Star TC-1 satellite data from HIA ion spectrograms on perigee passes during the period of May 15,…
Multiple responses of magnetotail to the enhancement and fluctuation of solar wind dynamic pressure and the southward turning of interplanetary magnetic field
Zhang, T. L.; Dandouras, I.; Rème, H. +5 more
During the interval from 06:15 to 07:30 UT on 24 August 2005, the Chinese Tan-Ce 1 (TC1) satellite observed the multiple responses of the near-Earth magnetotail to the combined changes in solar wind dynamic pressure and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The magnetotail was highly compressed by a strong interplanetary shock because of the dynami…
Fast acceleration of "killer" electrons and energetic ions by interplanetary shock stimulated ULF waves in the inner magnetosphere
Zong, QuiGang; Wang, YongFu; Yang, Biao +3 more
Energetic electrons and ions in the Van Allen radiation belt are the number one space weather threat. Understanding how these energetic particles are accelerated within the Van Allen radiation belt is one of the major challenges in space physics. This paper reviews the recent progress on the fast acceleration of "killer" electrons and energetic io…
The statistical studies of the inner boundary of plasma sheet
Dandouras, I.; Cao, J. B.; Ding, W. Z. +4 more
The penetration of plasma sheet ions into the inner magnetosphere is very important to the inner magnetospheric dynamics since plasma sheet ions are one of the major particle sources of ring current during storm times. However, the direct observations of the inner boundary of the plasma sheet are fairly rare due to the limited number of satellites…
TC-1 observations of a flux rope: Generation by multiple X line reconnection
Rème, H.; Cao, J. B.; Carr, C. M. +2 more
On 29 December 2004 the Double Star TC-1 satellite most probably stays close to a reconnection line for about 20 min. The direction of the X line can be evaluated according to the component merging model. During the time of observations, TC-1 also detects a flux transfer event (FTE). It is found that the FTE axis is parallel to such an X line. Thi…
Responses of the ionospheric electric field to the sheath region of ICME: A case study
Wei, Y.; Zong, Q. -G.; Guo, J. +8 more
We have examined the response of ionospheric electric field to the ICME sheath with the coordinated ground- and space-based magnetic measurements during the initial phase of December 14, 2006 storm. The duskward IEF pulses enhanced the westward convection electrojet and the eastward equatorial ionospheric electric field. The in situ magnetic measu…
High-speed flowing plasmas in the Earth's plasma sheet
Parks, George; Fu, SuiYan; Sun, WeiJie +4 more
A research topic of great interest to the space physics community is the observation of plasmas flowing at hundreds of kilometers per second in the Earth's plasma sheet. Although considerable effort has been made to understand the source of fast-flowing plasmas, many questions remain unanswered about the mechanisms that produce high-speed flows an…
A powerful tool for browsing quick-look data in solar-terrestrial physics: "Conjunction Event Finder"
Shinohara, Iku; Hasegawa, Hiroshi; Fujimoto, Masaki +4 more
The "Conjunction Event Finder (CEF)" is a Web tool for seamlessly browsing quick-look (QL) data from many different kinds of satellites and ground-based instruments in solar-terrestrial physics. The QL plots are generally scattered all over the world, so that browsing many of them is so far very troublesome and inefficient. Just a simple procedure…
Magnetopause response to variations in the solar wind: Conjunction observations between Cluster, TC-1, and SuperDARN
Dandouras, I.; Lucek, E.; Liu, Z. X. +5 more
How the solar wind affects the location of the magnetopause has been widely studied and excellent models of the magnetopause based on in situ observations in the solar wind and at the magnetopause have been established, while the careful insight into the responses of the magnetopause to the variations in the solar wind can still provide us some ne…