Structure of the low latitude boundary layer

Observations at high temporal resolution of the frontside magnetopause and plasma boundary layer, made with the LASL/MPE fast plasma analyzer onboard the ISEE 1 and 2 spacecraft, revealed a complex quasiperiodic structure of some of the observed boundary layers. A cool tailward streaming boundary layer plasma was seen intermittently, with intervening periods of hot tenuous plasma which has properties similar to the magnetospheric population. While individual encounters with the boundary layer plasma last only a few minutes, the total observation time may extend over one hour or more

Magnetospheric lion roars

International audienceThe Equator-S magnetometer is very sensitive and has a sampling rate normally of 128 Hz. The high sampling rate for the first time allows detection of ELF waves between the ion cyclotron and the lower hybrid frequencies in the equatorial dawnside magnetosphere. The characteristics of these waves are virtually identical to the lion roars typically seen at the bottom of the magnetic troughs of magnetosheath mirror waves. The magnetospheric lion roars are near-monochromatic packets of electron whistler waves lasting for a few wave cycles only, typically 0.2 s. They are right-hand circularly polarized waves with typical amplitudes of 0.5 nT at around one tenth of the electron gyrofrequency. The cone angle between wave vector and ambient field is nearly always smaller than 1°

The critical velocity effect as a cause for the H\alpha emission from the Magellanic stream

Observations show significant H\alpha-emissions in the Galactic halo near the edges of cold gas clouds of the Magellanic Stream. The source for the ionization of the cold gas is still a widely open question. In our paper we discuss the critical velocity effect as a possible explanation for the observed H\alpha-emission. The critical velocity effect can yield a fast ionization of cold gas if this neutral gas passes through a magnetized plasma under suitable conditions. We show that for parameters that are typical for the Magellanic Stream the critical velocity effect has to be considered as a possible ionization source of high relevance.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. accepted, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Magnetopause boundary structure deduced from the high-time resolution particle experiment on the Equator-S spacecraft

International audienceAn electrostatic analyser (ESA) onboard the Equator-S spacecraft operating in coordination with a potential control device (PCD) has obtained the first accurate electron energy spectrum with energies ˜7 eV–100 eV in the vicinity of the magnetopause. On 8 January, 1998, a solar wind pressure increase pushed the magnetopause inward, leaving the Equator-S spacecraft in the magnetosheath. On the return into the magnetosphere approximately 80 min later, the magnetopause was observed by the ESA and the solid state telescopes (the SSTs detected electrons and ions with energies ˜20–300 keV). The high time resolution (3 s) data from ESA and SST show the boundary region contains of multiple plasma sources that appear to evolve in space and time. We show that electrons with energies ˜7 eV–100 eV permeate the outer regions of the magnetosphere, from the magnetopause to ˜6Re. Pitch-angle distributions of ˜20–300 keV electrons show the electrons travel in both directions along the magnetic field with a peak at 90° indicating a trapped configuration. The IMF during this interval was dominated by Bx and By components with a small Bz

Identification of magnetosheath mirror modes in Equator-S magnetic field data

International audienceBetween December 1997 and March 1998 Equator-S made a number of excursions into the dawn-side magnetosheath, over a range of local times between 6:00 and 10:40 LT. Clear mirror-like structures, characterised by compressive fluctuations in |B| on occasion lasting for up to 5 h, were observed during a significant fraction of these orbits. During most of these passes the satellite appeared to remain close to the magnetopause (within 1?2 Re), during sustained compressions of the magnetosphere, and so the characteristics of the mirror structures are used as a diagnostic of magnetosheath structure close to the magnetopause during these orbits. It is found that in the majority of cases mirror-like activity persists, undamped, to within a few minutes of the magnetopause, with no observable ramp in |B|, irrespective of the magnetic shear across the boundary. This suggests that any plasma depletion layer is typically of narrow extent or absent at the location of the satellite, at least during the subset of orbits containing strong magnetosheath mirror-mode signatures. Power spectra for the mirror signatures show predominately field aligned power, a well defined shoulder at around 3?10 x 10 ?2 Hz and decreasing power at higher frequencies. On occasions the fluctuations are more sinusoidal, leading to peaked spectra instead of a shoulder. In all cases mirror structures are found to lie approximately parallel to the observed magnetopause boundary. There is some indication that the amplitude of the compressional fluctuations tends to be greater closer to the magnetopause. This has not been previously reported in the Earth's magnetosphere, but has been suggested in the case of other planets

Cluster observes formation of high-beta plasma blobs

Late in a sequence of four moderate substorms on 26 July 2001, Cluster observed periods of a few minutes durations of high-beta plasma events (<i>B</i><10nT, β=2-30), connected with dipolarizations of the magnetic field. Cluster was located near 02:45 MLT, at <i>R</i>=19<i>R<sub>E</sub></i> and at about 5°N GSM. These events began late in the recovery phase of the second and about 5min before onset of the third substorm and lasted for three hours, way beyond the recovery phase of the fourth substorm. The most remarkable observation is that the onset coincided with the arrival of energetic (<i>E</i>~7keV) O<sup>+</sup> ions and energetic electrons obviously from the ionosphere, which tended to dominate the plasma composition throughout the remaining time. The magnetic flux and plasma transport is continuously directed equatorward and earthward, with oscillatory east-west movements superposed. Periods of the order of 5-10min and strong correlations between the magnetic elevation angle and log β (correlation coefficient 0.78) are highly reminiscent of the high-beta plasma blobs discovered with Equator-S and Geotail between 9 and 11<i>R<sub>E</sub></i> in the late night/early morning sector (Haerendel et al., 1999). <P style="line-height: 20px;"> We conclude that Cluster observed the plasma blob formation in the tail plasma sheet, which seems to occur predominantly in the recovery and post-recovery phases of substorms. This is consistent with the finding of Equator-S and Geotail. The origin is a pulsed earthward plasma transport with velocity amplitudes of only several tens of km/s

An exact solution of the moving boundary problem for the relativistic plasma expansion in a dipole magnetic field

An exact analytic solution is obtained for a uniformly expanding, neutral, highly conducting plasma sphere in an ambient dipole magnetic field with an arbitrary orientation of the dipole moment in the space. Based on this solution the electrodynamical aspects related to the emission and transformation of energy have been considered. In order to highlight the effect of the orientation of the dipole moment in the space we compare our results obtained for parallel orientation with those for transversal orientation. The results obtained can be used to treat qualitatively experimental and simulation data, and several phenomena of astrophysical and laboratory significance.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:physics/060323

High-Energy Aspects of Solar Flares: Overview of the Volume

In this introductory chapter, we provide a brief summary of the successes and remaining challenges in understanding the solar flare phenomenon and its attendant implications for particle acceleration mechanisms in astrophysical plasmas. We also provide a brief overview of the contents of the other chapters in this volume, with particular reference to the well-observed flare of 2002 July 23Comment: This is the introductory article for a monograph on the physics of solar flares, inspired by RHESSI observations. The individual articles are to appear in Space Science Reviews (2011