HR: 1340h
AN: SM13B-1216    [Abstracts]
TI: Local Time Distribution of Reconnected Field Lines Under Northward IMF Conditions: Implications for Populating the Low Latitude Boundary Layer
AU: * Petrinec, S M
EM: petrinec@spasci.com
AF: Lockheed Martin ATC, B/255, ADCS 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304 United States
AU: Fuselier, S A
EM: stephen.a.fuselier@lmco.com
AF: Lockheed Martin ATC, B/255, ADCS 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304 United States
AU: Claflin, S
EM: claflin@spasci.com
AF: Lockheed Martin ATC, B/255, ADCS 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304 United States
AU: Berchem, J
EM: jberchem@igpp.ucla.edu
AF: IGPP/UCLA, Slichter Hall 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90095 United States
AB: Full 3D plasma observations in the northern cusp region are used to study the reconnection process and the in-flow of flux into the magnetosphere during intervals of northward IMF. Several intervals are examined for which He$^{++}$ of solar wind origin appears simultaneously with counter-streaming O$^{+}$ ions of ionospheric origin. The presence of He$^{++}$ indicates that magnetic reconnection had recently occurred (opening the magnetosphere to the solar wind), while the counter-streaming O$^{+}$ observations provides evidence that the magnetic field lines have once again closed. This implies that the magnetic field line has reconnected twice; once in one hemisphere (tailward of the cusp), and then a second time in the opposite hemisphere. The local time distribution of the occurrence of these events provides important information as to where and when magnetopause reconnection for northward IMF is likely to occur, and how solar wind plasma is brought into the low-latitude boundary layer of the outer magnetosphere. These locations are also compared with model predictions.
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection
DE: 2724 Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers
DE: 2731 Magnetosphere--outer
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting