Statistical research on the motion properties of the magnetotail current sheet: Cluster observations

Sun, W.; Shi, Quanqi; Fu, S. Y.; Zong, Q.; Pu, Z. Y.; Xie, L.; Xiao, Ting; Li, Lei; Liu, Zhenxing; Rème, H.; Lucek, E.

doi:10.1007/s11431-010-3153-y

Cited by 16 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The plasma sheet encompasses the magnetotail current sheet and the flapping of the current sheet is frequently observed (Sergeev et al, 2004;Sun et al, 2010). This flapping often results in a spacecraft repeatedly crossing the tail current sheet, during which a reduction in magnetic field magnitude could be observed.…”

Section: Observation Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cluster and TC-1 observation of magnetic holes in the plasma sheet

Sun

Shi

et al. 2012

Ann. Geophys.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Magnetic holes with relatively small scale sizes, detected by Cluster and TC-1 in the magnetotail plasma sheet, are studied in this paper. It is found that these magnetic holes are spatial structures and they are not magnetic depressions generated by the flapping movement of the magnetotail current sheet. Most of the magnetic holes (93 %) were observed during intervals with B z larger than B x , i.e. they are more likely to occur in a dipolarized magnetic field topology. Our results also suggest that the occurrence of these magnetic holes might have a close relationship with the dipolarization process. The magnetic holes typically have a scale size comparable to the local proton Larmor radius and are accompanied by an electron energy flux enhancement at a 90 • pitch angle, which is quite different from the previously observed isotropic electron distributions inside magnetic holes in the plasma sheet. It is also shown that most of the magnetic holes occur in marginally mirror-stable environments. Whether the plasma sheet magnetic holes are generated by the mirror instability related to ions or not, however, is unknown. Comparison of ratios, scale sizes and propagation direction of magnetic holes detected by Cluster and TC-1, suggests that magnetic holes observed in the vicinity of the TC-1 orbit (∼7-12 R E ) are likely to be further developed than those observed by Cluster (∼7-18 R E ).

show abstract

Section: Observation Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cluster and TC-1 observation of magnetic holes in the plasma sheet

Sun

Shi

et al. 2012

Ann. Geophys.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Runov et al also found a longer event (7Re) observed by THEMIS [11]. The flapping movement of current sheet prefer moving up and down in the midnight tail region [9,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Their results showed that most magnetotail current sheets propagated from the midnight tail region towards dawn and dusk flanks. Also see in [8,9]. Zhang et al found a same magnetotail current sheet propagated from the midnight tail region toward the dawn flank with TC-1 and Cluster, and his result implied that the flapping movement of current sheet could stretch in a large scale (5Re) along X direction [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Sun et al found that the way of current sheets propagating toward midnight ( 0 = Y ) is significantly different from the ones propagating toward flanks [9]. The current sheets propagating towards flanks often appear as a pair of current sheets traversed the spacecraft one by one, while current sheet propagating towards midnight ( 0 = Y ) often show that one current sheet traversed spacecraft and traverse them again in the opposite direction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current sheets propagating towards flanks often appear as a pair of current sheets traversed the spacecraft one by one, while current sheet propagating towards midnight ( 0 = Y ) often show that one current sheet traversed spacecraft and traverse them again in the opposite direction. See figure 5 and 6 in [9]. In this article, we will make investigation of current sheet crossings in 2004 and 2005.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The magnetotail current sheet movement detected by Cluster

Sun¹,

Shi²,

Xiao³

2011

2011 XXXth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using Cluster four spacecraft data, we have made a statistical research on the motion properties of the magnetotail current sheets of the year 2004 and 2005 with various methods. We find that most of the current sheets are propagating from the midnight tail region to dawn and dusk flanks which is consistent with previous studies. Most of the current sheets are propagating with the velocities smaller than 100 km/s, and the exceptions account for 6.5 % of all events. We have also found that 'Enter/Retreat' current sheets more favorably occur during the southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF).

show abstract

Propagation characteristics of young hot flow anomalies near the bow shock: Cluster observations

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Based on Cluster observations, the propagation velocities and normal directions of hot flow anomaly (HFA) boundaries upstream the Earth's bow shock are calculated. Twenty‐one young HFAs, which have clear leading and trailing boundaries, were selected, and multispacecraft timing method considering errors was employed for the investigation. According to the difference in the propagation velocity of the leading and trailing edges, we categorized these events into three groups, namely, contracting, expanding, and stable events. The contraction speed is a few tens of kilometers per second for the contracting HFAs, and the expansion speed is tens to more than hundred kilometers per second for expanding events. For the stable events, the leading and trailing edges propagate at almost the same speed within the error range. We have further investigated what causes them to contract, expand, or stay stable by carefully calculating the thermal pressure of the young HFAs which have two distinct ion populations (solar wind beam and reflected flow). It is found that the extreme value of the sum of the magnetic and thermal pressure inside the HFAs compared with that of the nearest point outside of the leading edges is higher for expanding events and lower for contracting events, and there is no significant difference for the stable events, and the total pressure (sum of thermal, magnetic, and dynamic pressure) variation has a significant effect on the evolution for most (70%) of the HFAs, which implies that the pressure plays an important role in the evolution of young HFAs.

show abstract

Statistical research on the motion properties of the magnetotail current sheet: Cluster observations

Cited by 16 publications

References 20 publications

Cluster and TC-1 observation of magnetic holes in the plasma sheet

Cluster and TC-1 observation of magnetic holes in the plasma sheet

The magnetotail current sheet movement detected by Cluster

Propagation characteristics of young hot flow anomalies near the bow shock: Cluster observations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About