HR: 08:45h
AN: SM51B-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Plasma Sheet Expansion: Revisit
AU: * Ohtani, S
EM: Shin.Ohtani@jhuapl.edu
AF: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723-6099 United States
AU: Mukai, T
EM: mukai@stp.isas.jaxa.jp
AF: JAXA/Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, 229-8510 Japan
AB: The present study observationally examines the expansion of the plasma sheet in the near-Earth magnetotail. Three possible explanations are tested with plasma and magnetic field measurements made by the Geotail satellite. Those explanations are (1) the filling of newly closed flux tube with fresh plasma, (2) the increase in the plasma-sheet plasma pressure on the arrival of the fast plasma flow, and (3) the decrease in the lobe magnetic pressure due to tail current disruption. The result will be addressed in terms of connection between near-Earth (tail current disruption) and mid-tail substorm (near-Earth reconnection) processes.
DE: 2708 Current systems (2409)
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
DE: 2760 Plasma convection
DE: 2764 Plasma sheet
DE: 2788 Storms and substorms
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly