HR: 14:00h
AN: SM33A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Multiple X line reconnection in the near Earth magnetotail: Cluster multipoint plasma and field observations
AU: * Eastwood, J P
EM: jeastwood@lepvax.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Sibeck, D G
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Slavin, J A
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Goldstein, M L
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Keith, W
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Hesse, M
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Lavraud, B
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM United States
AU: Sitnov, M
AF: University of Maryland, College Park, MD United States
AU: Lucek, E A
AF: Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, United Kingdom
AU: Balogh, A
AF: Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, United Kingdom
AB: Eastwood et al. [2004, manuscript submitted to GRL], have recently reported observations of multiple X line reconnection proceeding in the near Earth (~18Re) magnetotail, leading to the formation and growth of an Earthward moving flux rope. Here we present the associated ion and electron measurements that indicate significant structuring to the magnetic field; in particular, an absence of counterstreaming electrons in the center of the flux rope. The observations, made on October 2 2003, are put into a wider context by examining the surrounding plasma conditions, which indicate that after the event, the plasma sheet was highly dynamic. We also consider how common these observations are in the Cluster dataset, and discuss the implications for previous single spacecraft studies.
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
DE: 2764 Plasma sheet
DE: 7835 Magnetic reconnection
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly