HR: 17:30h
AN: SA24A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: A Multi-Instrument Study of the Spatial and Temporal Properties of Magnetic Reconnection.
AU: * McWilliams, K A
EM: kathryn.mcwilliams@usask.ca
AF: University of Saskatchewan, 116 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2 Canada
AU: Yeoman, T K
EM: yxo@ion.le.ac.uk
AF: University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH United Kingdom
AU: Davies, J A
EM: J.A.Davies@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Space Physics Division Space Science and Technology Department CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX United Kingdom
AU: Frey, H
EM: hfrey@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory 7 Gauss Way #7450, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 United States
AU: Nagai, T
EM: nagai@geo.titech.ac.jp
AF: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Tokyo Institute of Technology 2-12-1 Ookayama Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8551 Japan
AU: Lockwood, M
EM: M.Lockwood@rl.ac.uk
AF: Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Space Physics Division Space Science and Technology Department CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX United Kingdom
AU: Wild, J A
EM: j.wild@lancaster.ac.uk
AF: University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH United Kingdom
AU: Wild, J A
EM: j.wild@lancaster.ac.uk
AF: Lancaster University, Department of Communications Systems InfoLab21 South Drive Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4WA United Kingdom
AB: Multi-instrument studies of the dayside magnetosphere and the ionosphere have proven to be an excellent way to study the direct coupling of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Often transient features are observed at the magnetopause, in the high- and low- altitude cusp, and in the ionosphere near the footprint of the cusp and well into the polar cap. The challenge is to detangle the temporal and spatial effects in the multi-point observations from such a diverse data set. On 4 October 2002 there was an excellent and rare conjunction of spacebourne instrumentation monitoring the dayside magnetosphere and ground-based instruments in the Scandinavian sector below. Geotail was in the vicinity of the postnoon magnetopause, all Cluster spacecraft traversed the high-altitude cusp, there were several DMSP crossings of the low-altitude cusp, and the IMAGE spacecraft passed over the northern polar cap during the interval. To take advantage of the instrument conjuction, EISCAT and ESR were run in a CP4-type mode, providing simultaneous measurements of electron densities and temperatures over a range of latitudes through the auroral zone and well into the polar cap. DMSP and Cluster both measured energy-dispersed cusp ions, and these will be compared to transient poleward-moving features measured by EISCAT and ESR. The reconnection transients at different altitudes, along with the density and temperature signatures from EISCAT and ESR, will be examined in the context of the large-scale convection velocities measured by the CUTLASS HF radars, as well as the global ultraviolet auroral emissions.
DE: 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704)
DE: 2427 Ionosphere/atmosphere interactions (0335)
DE: 2475 Polar cap ionosphere
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431)
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005