HR: 1340h
AN: SM23A-1191    [Abstracts]
TI: What are the ionospheric signatures of magnetotail reconnection?
AU: * Ostgaard, N
EM: Nikolai.Ostgaard@ift.uib.no
AF: University of Bergen, Allegt 55, Bergen, 5007, Norway
AU: Borg, A L
EM: a.l.birg@fys.uio.no
AF: FFI, P.O.Box 25, Kjeller, Oslo, 2027, Norway
AU: Asnes, A
EM: aasnes@rssd.esa.int
AF: ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, SCI-SO, Noordwijk, 2201AG, Netherlands
AU: Pedersen, A
EM: arne.pedersen@fys.uio.no
AF: University of Oslo, Box 1072, Blindern, Oslo, 0316, Norway
AU: Oieroset, M
EM: oieroset@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: SSL, University of Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, United States
AU: Phan, T
EM: phan@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: SSL, University of Berkeley, 7 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, United States
AU: Snekvik, K
EM: kristian.snekvik@ift.uib.no
AF: University of Bergen, Allegt 55, Bergen, 5007, Norway
AB: In a recent case study based on the combined Cluster and Polar PIXIE data we reported that an inverted-V structure caused by a field aligned potential drop of 30 kV producing very strong X-ray aurora was found in connection with tail reconnection. However, the insitu particle measurements by Cluster indicate clearly that the particles responsible for the X-ray aurora were not accelerated by the reconection process. In this paper we report predicted and observed ionospheric signatures of 13 reconnection events where Cluster passed through the reconnection ion diffusion region. For the 6 events where global auroral imaging data were available our results indicate that reconnection is an azimuthally expanding (or extended) process observed along the poleward boundary of the aurora. Furthermore, the ionospheric emissions indicate that there has to be acceleration mechanism in addition to the local acceleration in the ion diffusion region.
DE: 2704 Auroral phenomena (2407)
DE: 2716 Energetic particles: precipitating
DE: 2723 Magnetic reconnection (7526, 7835)
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431)
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting