HR: 15:25h
AN: SM13C-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Cluster multi-point observations of slow shock structures in the magnetotail
AU: * Eastwood, J P
EM: jeastwood@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA GSFC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Sibeck, D G
AF: NASA GSFC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Slavin, J A
AF: NASA GSFC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Goldstein, M L
AF: NASA GSFC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Keith, W
AF: NASA GSFC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Hesse, M
AF: NASA GSFC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Balogh, A
AF: Imperial College London, Space and Atmospheric Physics, The Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BW United Kingdom
AU: Lucek, E A
AF: Imperial College London, Space and Atmospheric Physics, The Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2BW United Kingdom
AU: Dandouras, I
AF: CESR - CNRS/UPS, 9, avenue du Colonel Roche, Cedex 4, Toulouse, 31028 France
AB: Slow shocks are thought to play a key role in collisionless reconnection. Whilst such structures are presumed to exist in the magnetotail, experimental evidence, particularly of their detailed substructure, remains sparse. In order to identify whether or not an observed transition corresponds to a slow shock, its normal must be accurately calculated. In this regard, the multi-spacecraft Cluster mission provides a new way to study these structures. Here we present the first results of an investigation into slow shocks observed by Cluster in the magnetotail. The aim of this study is to use the multi-point high-resolution Cluster Flux-Gate Magnetometer (FGM) data to identify potential slow shock candidates in the magnetotail, to establish their geometry using multi-spacecraft techniques already widely used at the bow shock, and to examine their substructure, the experimental nature of which remains unclear. The 2001 and 2002 tail seasons have been surveyed for events, resulting in 40+ candidate intervals for 2001 alone. In particular we concentrate on an event observed at 01:30 on August 27 2001, when the spacecraft were operating in `burst mode'. The substructure is examined using 3d electron observations from Cluster PEACE, in the context of a 1 dimensional fully kinetic plasma simulation.
DE: 7843 Numerical simulation studies
DE: 7851 Shock waves
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting