Further Studies of Multiple Flux Rope Events at the Magnetopause Observed by TC-1 on 18 March, 2004

HR: 0800h
AN: SM21B-0374 [Abstracts]
TI: Further Studies of Multiple Flux Rope Events at the Magnetopause Observed by TC-1 on 18 March, 2004
AU: * Wei, Y
EM: weiy@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
AF: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100029 China
AU: * Wei, Y
EM: weiy@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
AF: Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Science, Wuhan, 430071 China
AU: * Wei, Y
EM: weiy@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
AF: Graduate School, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049 China
AU: Xiao, C
EM: cjxiao@ourstar.bao.ac.cn
AF: National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100012 China
AU: Pu, Z
EM: zypu@pku.edu.cn
AF: School of Earth and Space Science, Peking University, Beijign, 100871 China
AU: Hong, M
EM: mhhong@physics.auburn.edu
AF: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100029 China
AU: Wang, W
EM: wanw@mail.igcas.ac.cn
AF: Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100029 China
AU: Liu, Z
EM: liu@center.cssar.ac.cn
AF: CSSAR, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100080 China
AB: From 23:10 to 23:50 UT on 18 March 2004, the Double Star TC-1 spacecraft detected eight flux ropes at the outbound crossing of the southern dawnside magnetopause. During this time period the Cluster constellation was staying in the magnetosheath. The four spacecraft observed that the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) has a dominant negative B_y component together with a southward B_z. Notable guide field was found to exist inside all eight magnetic flux ropes detected by TC-1. The precedent six ropes observed from 23:14-23:27 UT that appeared quasi-periodically with a repeated period being approximately 1-4 minutes, which is much shorter than the averaged occurrence period (about 8~11 minutes) of the flux transfer events (FTEs) at the dayside magnetopause. The Minimum Variation Analysis (MVA) and the Grad-Shafronov Reconstruction (GSR) technique are applied in the present study of this multiple flux rope event. By and large, all the principal axes of this flux ropes are found to be along the dawn-dusk direction. The deHoffmann-Teller (HT) analysis shows that the HT velocities (V_HT) of these flux ropes were all directed dawnward and poleward, indicating that they came from the duskward and equatorward side of the spacecraft location and were produced via component magnetic reconnection in the subsolar region at the magnetopause.
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2724 Magnetopause and boundary layers
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005