Cluster Observations of Ion Dispersions near the Exterior Cusp

0431015 - ÚFA 2015 US eng A - Abstract
Escoubet, C. P. - Grison, Benjamin - Berchem, J. - Trattner, K. J. - Pitout, F. - Richard, R. L. - Taylor, M. G. - Laakso, H. - Masson, A. - Dunlop, M. W. - Dandouras, I. - Reme, H. - Fazakerley, A. N. - Daly, P.
Cluster Observations of Ion Dispersions near the Exterior Cusp.
AGU Fall Meeting 2013. San Francisco: AGU, 2013. SM11B-2077.
[AGU Fall Meeting 2013. 09.12.2013-13.12.2013, San Francisco]
Institutional support: RVO:68378289
Keywords : Cusp * Solar wind/magnetosphere interactions
Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics
http://abstractsearch.agu.org/meetings/2013/FM/sections/SM/sessions/SM11B/abstracts/SM11B-2077.html

The cusps are the places where the Earth's magnetic field lines, connected to the inner side of the magnetopause, converge. It is therefore the place where signatures of processes occurring near the subsolar point, in the tail lobes, as well as near the dawn and dusk flanks are observed. The main process that injects solar wind plasma into the polar cusp is now generally accepted to be magnetic reconnection. Depending on the IMF direction, this process will take place equatorward (for IMF southward), poleward (for IMF northward) or on the side (for IMF azimuthal) of the cusp. We report a Cluster crossing on 5 January 2002 near the exterior cusp on the southern dusk side. The IMF was mainly azimuthal (IMF-By around -5 nT), the solar wind speed around 280 km/s and the density around 5 cm-3. The four Cluster spacecraft were still in the "magnetotail" configuration with two perfect tetrahedra of 2000 km around apogee and turning into an elongated configuration near the magnetopause. C4 was the first spacecraft to enter the cusp around 19:52:04 UT, followed by C2 at 19:52:35 UT, C1 at 19:54:24 UT and C3 at 20:13:15 UT. C4 and C1 observed two ion energy dispersions at 20:10 UT and 20:40 UT and C3 at 20:35 UT and 21:15 UT. We will investigate the origin of the injections forming the dispersions and if these can be explained by the reconnection between the interplanetary magnetic field and the Earth's magnetic field.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0235663