HR: 09:00h
AN: SM51B-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Multipoint Substorm Studies With the Present Fleet of Spacecraft
AU: * Paterson, W R
EM: bill.paterson@hamptonu.edu
AF: Hampton University, Center for Atmospheric Sciences, 119 Phenix Hall, Hampton, VA 23692 United States
AU: Ackerson, K L
EM: kent-ackerson@uiowa.edu
AF: The University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Frank, L A
AF: The University of Iowa, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City, IA 52242 United States
AU: Raeder, J
EM: j.raeder@unh.edu
AF: University of New Hampshire, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, Durham, NH 03824 United States
AB: The time-sequence of events that occurs prior to onset is a matter of intense interest for determination of the physical mechanism that initiates substorms. The presently-available fleet of magnetospheric spacecraft including ACE, Cluster, Geotail, IMAGE, and Polar offers a capability for simultaneous observation of the tail plasma sheet at radial distances ≤10 R_E and ~20 R_E with concurrent imaging of auroral luminosities and of energetic neutral atoms from the inner magnetosphere. This combination of observations can provide insight, for examples, by identifying the position of onset with respect to the ring curent, or by searching for precursor beams in the middle magnetotail. In this report we discuss occurrences of substorms during fortuitous conjunctions of the above-mentioned spacecraft that may be good cases for global simulations. We also discuss difficulties associated with this methodology.
DE: 2700 MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS
DE: 2740 Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics
DE: 2744 Magnetotail
DE: 2788 Storms and substorms
DE: 2794 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly