HR: 17:20h
AN: SH32C-05 [PDF]
TI: Cluster Observations of Electromagnetic Waves in the Vicinity of a Reconnection X-Line at the
High-Latitude Magnetopause
AU: * Phan, T D
EM: phan@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory
UC, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Bale, S D
EM: bale@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory
UC, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Mozer, F S
EM: fmozer@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory
UC, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Paschmann, G
EM: gep@mpe.mpg.de
AF: MPE Garching, MPE, Garching, 85740
Germany
AU: Dunlop, M W
EM: M.W.Dunlop@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxford, 0X11 0QX
United Kingdom
AU: Balogh, A
EM: balogh@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College, Physics Department
Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom
AU: Cornilleau-Wehrlin, N
EM: nicole.cornilleau@cetp.ipsl.fr
AF: CETP, 10-12 Avenue de l'Europe, Velizy, 78140
France
AU: Reme, H
EM: reme@aneto.cesr.fr
AF: CESR, CESR, Toulouse, 31029
France
AB:
On March 18, 2002, under northward interplanetary field conditions, the Cluster spacecraft observed reconnection signatures
and the passage of an X-line at the large (~175 deg.) magnetic shear high-latitude magnetopause [Phan et al., 2003]. The
X-line passage was indicated by the detection of reconnection jet reversal while the spacecraft were in the magnetopause.
Here we examine the particle and field properties as a function of the distance from the X-line. In the vicinity of the
X-line, intense electric field fluctuations are observed with amplitudes reaching 150 mV/m. The electric field fluctuation
level is much reduced in the outflow region. In contrast to the electric field behavior, the magnetic field fluctuations are
smaller in the vicinity of the X-line than in the outflow region. In terms of particle properties, D-shaped ion distributions
(with low-energy cutoff at the deHoffmann-Teller velocity) are seen close to the X-line as well as in the outflow region.
Phan et al., Simultaneous Cluster and IMAGE observations of cusp reconnection and auroral proton spot for northward IMF,
Geophys. Res. Lett, 30(10), 1509, doi:10.1029/2003GL016885, 2003.
DE: 2724 Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers
DE: 2772 Plasma waves and instabilities
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection
SC: SPA - Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting