In this paper we study a flow burst event which took place during enhanced geomagnetic activity on July 22, 2001, when Cluster was located in the postmidnight magnetotail. The flow burst was associated with a clear dipolarization ahead of the high‐speed part of the predominantly Earthward directed flow. Based on the analysis of the four spacecraft data, we found that a ∼2000 km thick dipolarization front moves Earthward and dawnward with a speed of ∼77 km/s. The plasma before this front is deflected, consistent with the plasma ahead of a localized plasma bubble centered at midnight side being pushed aside by the moving obstacle. The main body of the high‐speed flow is directed mainly parallel to the dipolarization front. These observations indicate that the evolution of the dipolarization front across the tail is directly coupled with the fast flow.

[1] Magnetic flux transfer events (FTEs) are signatures of unsteady magnetic reconnection, often observed at planetary magnetopauses. Their generation mechanism, a key ingredient determining how they regulate the transfer of solar wind energy into magnetospheres, is still largely unknown. We report THEMIS spacecraft observations on 2007-06-14 of an FTE generated by multiple X-line reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. The evidence consists of (1) two oppositely-directed ion jets converging toward the FTE that was slowly moving southward, (2) the cross-section of the FTE core being elongated along the magnetopause normal, probably squeezed by the oppositely-directed jets, and (3) bidirectional field-aligned fluxes of energetic electrons in the magnetosheath, indicating reconnection on both sides of the FTE. The observations agree well with a global magnetohydrodynamic model of the FTE generation under large geomagnetic dipole tilt, which implies the efficiency of magnetic flux transport into the magnetotail being lower for larger dipole tilt. Citation: Hasegawa, H., et al. (2010), Evidence for a flux transfer event generated by multiple X-line reconnection at the magnetopause, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L16101,

[1] In this paper we report Cluster observation of a fast flow event in the plasma sheet associated with a small auroral substorm intensification at 1838 UT on August 12, 2001. Cluster, located in the plasma sheet, experienced significant thinning of the current sheet associated with a high-speed Earthward flow of 900 km/s. By using the four spacecraft magnetic field data and a Harris-type current sheet model, it was estimated that the thickness of the current sheet changes from about 1 R E before the flow observation down to 400 km, i.e., close to the ion inertia length. In the vicinity of this thin current sheet there were also signatures of enhanced current density off the center of the neutral sheet, consistent with recent Geotail results.

No abstract

Abstract. During April to July 2007 a combination of 10 spacecraft provided simultaneous monitoring of the dayside magnetopause across a wide range of local times. The array of four Cluster spacecraft, separated at large distances (10 000 km), were traversing the dawn-side magnetopause at high and low latitudes; the five THEMIS spacecraft were often in a 4 + 1 grouped configuration, traversing the low latitude, dusk-side magnetosphere, and the Double star, TC-1 spacecraft was in an equatorial orbit between the local times of the THEMIS and Cluster orbits. We show here a number of near simultaneous conjunctions of all 10 spacecraft at the magnetopause. One conjunction identifies an extended magnetic reconnection X-line, tilted in the low latitude, sub-solar region, which exists together with active anti-parallel reconnection sites extending to locations on the dawn-side flank. Oppositely moving FTE's are observed on all spacecraft, consistent with the initially strong IMF B y conditions and the comparative locations of the spacecraft both dusk-ward and dawn-ward of noon. Comparison with other conjunctions of magnetopause crossings, which are also distributed Correspondence to: M. W. Dunlop (m.w.dunlop@rl.ac.uk) over wide local times, supports the result that reconnection activity may occur at many sites simultaneously across the sub-solar and flank magnetopause, but linked to the large scale (extended) configuration of the merging line; broadly depending on IMF orientation. The occurrence of MR therefore inherently follows a "component" driven scenario irrespective of the guide field conditions. Some conjunctions allow the global magnetopause response to IMF changes to be observed and the distribution of spacecraft can directly confirm its shape, motion and deformation at local noon, dawn and dusk-side, simultaneously.