HR: 09:15h
AN: SM41A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Field-Aligned Current at Plasma Sheet Boundary Layers During Storm Time: Cluster Observation
AU: * Shi, J
EM: jkshi@center.cssar.ac.cn
AF: Key Laboratory for Space Weather, CSSAR, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China
AU: Cheng, Z
EM: zwcheng@spaceweather.ac.cn
AF: Key Laboratory for Space Weather, CSSAR, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China
AU: Zhang, T
EM: Teilongzhang@aoew.a.at
AF: Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, A-8042, Austria
AU: Dunlop, M
EM: mwdunlop@rl.ac.uk
AF: SSTD, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, United Kingdom
AU: Liu, Z
EM: Liu@cssar.ac.cn
AF: Key Laboratory for Space Weather, CSSAR, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100080, China
AB: The magnetic field data from the FGM instruments on board the four Cluster spacecrafts were used to study Field Aligned Current (FAC) at the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layers (PSBLs) with the so called "curlometer technique". We analyzed the date obtained in 2001 in the magnetotail and only two cases were found in the storm time. One (August 17, 2001) occurred from sudden commencement to main phase, and the other (October 1, 2001) lay in the main phase and recovery phase. The relationship between the FAC density and the AE index was studied and the results are shown as follows. (1) In the sudden commencement and the main phase the density of the FAC increases obviously, in the recovery phase the density of the FAC increases slightly. (2) From the sudden commencement to the initial stage of the main phase the FAC increases with decreasing AE index and decreases with increasing AE index. From the late stage of the main phase to initial stage of the recovery phase, the FAC increases with increasing AE index and decreases with decreasing AE index. In the late stage of the recovery phase the disturbance of the FAC is not so violent, so that the FAC varying with the AE index is not very obvious.
DE: 2736 Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions (2431)
DE: 2748 Magnetotail boundary layers
SC: SPA-Magnetospheric Physics [SM]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly