HR: 14:50h
AN: SM33C-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Magnetosphere response to sudden solar wind and IMF changes as observed by the Cluster and Double Star spacecraft
AU: * Dandouras, I
EM: Iannis.Dandouras@cesr.fr
AF: Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, CNRS / UPS, 9 Ave. du Colonel Roche BP 44346, Toulouse, F-31028, France
AU: Plainaki, C
EM: cplainak@phys.uoa.gr
AF: National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Physics Department Nuclear & Particle Physics Section Zografos, Athens, 15771, Greece
AU: Cao, J
EM: jbcao@cssar.ac.cn
AF: Key Laboratory of Space Weather, CSSAR / CAS, NO.1 Nanertiao, Zhongguancun, Haidian district, Beijing, 100080, China
AB: The four identical Cluster spacecraft, launched in 2000, orbit the Earth in a tetrahedral configuration and on a highly eccentric polar orbit (4 - 19.6 Re). This allows the crossing of critical layers that develop as a result of the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere. During the northern hemisphere winter their apogee is in the solar wind, allowing to study the magnetopause and bow shock structure and response to solar wind conditions, whereas during the remaining part of the year they analyze the magnetotail dynamics during storms and substorms. The 4 Re perigee permits them to sample the ring current, the outer radiation belt and the outer plasmasphere from south to north, following almost the same magnetic flux tube (latitudinal profile). Since 2004 the Double Star TC-1 and TC-2 spacecraft provide two additional points of measurement, on a larger scale. The Cluster and Double Star TC-1 orbits are such that the spacecraft are almost in the same meridian, allowing conjugate studies in the outer magnetosphere, whereas in the inner magnetosphere they can simultaneously investigate the ring current in opposite MLT sectors. Their observations during sudden interplanetary conditions changes and extreme solar events will be presented, showing unusual dayside magnetosphere compression, detection of high-energy particle populations, and the evolution of the energetic ion populations in the ring current.
DE: 2730 Magnetosphere: inner
DE: 2731 Magnetosphere: outer
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2784 Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
DE: 2788 Magnetic storms and substorms (7954)
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting