HR: 16:00h
AN: SM24A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: CLUSTER measurements of magnetospheric substorms and their implications for the near-Earth neutral line model
AU: * Baker, D N
EM: daniel.baker@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: LASP/Univ. of Colorado, 1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303-7814 United States
AB: The magnetospheric research community has long sought the capability to view the Sun-Earth system in a global way and concurrently to probe the microphysical details of key physical regions. This objective has now been substantially realized with the combination of the CLUSTER constellation and global magnetospheric imaging missions. With the addition of SOHO, ACE, POLAR, and various geostationary orbit spacecraft, there is an ability to apply both global and local observational principles. Many recent examples serve to illustrate the observational power of these new tools. Using tail crossing events in 2001-2002, CLUSTER observed clear substorm sequences of events in the mid-magnetotail region (X ~ 19R_E). In these cases, CLUSTER data reveal microphysical details while other spacecraft show the global, macroscopic context. We have used the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry MHD simulation code to numerically model several of these specific events. The new observations and model comparisons are leading to new understandings of magnetospheric processes. Several of the cases to be presented show global features consistent with the present-day near-Earth neutral line (NENL) model of substorm dynamics, but the specific details reveal heretofore unappreciated aspects of processes such as magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration.
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
DE: 2748 Magnetotail boundary layers
DE: 2764 Plasma sheet
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
DE: 2788 Magnetic storms and substorms (7954)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005