Magnetic local time dependency on cusp ion velocity dispersions in the mid-altitude cusp

Observations of cusp ion velocity dispersions made by the TIMAS instrument on the Polar spacecraft in the mid-altitude cusp during intervals of northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) reveal a clear ordering with magnetic local time (MLT). Between 1100 and 1300 MLT the injected ion velocity increased with invariant latitude for 78% of the cusp crossings, between 0900 and 1100 MLT this percentage reduced to 35% and between 1300 and 1500 MLT the percentage reduced to 57%. In contrast similar observations made during intervals of southward IMF revealed no MLT dependency. Between 0900 and 1500 MLT the injected ion velocity increased with invariant latitude for only 17% of the observed cusp crossings. We suggest that the difference in the MLT dependency between northward and southward IMF can be best explained by the different characteristics of polar convection patterns for sub-solar and lobe reconnection

Cluster observations of surface waves on the dawn flank magnetopause

On 14 June 2001 the four Cluster spacecraft recorded multiple encounters of the dawn-side flank magnetopause. The characteristics of the observed electron populations varied between a cold, dense magnetosheath population and warmer, more rarified boundary layer population on a quasi-periodic basis. The demarcation between these two populations can be readily identified by gradients in the scalar temperature of the electrons. An analysis of the differences in the observed timings of the boundary at each spacecraft indicates that these magnetopause crossings are consistent with a surface wave moving across the flank magnetopause. When compared to the orientation of the magnetopause expected from models, we find that the leading edges of these waves are approximately 45° steeper than the trailing edges, consistent with the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) driving mechanism. A stability analysis of this interval suggests that the magnetopause is marginally stable to this mechanism during this event. Periods in which the analysis predicts that the magnetopause is unstable correspond to observations of greater wave steepening. Analysis of the pulses suggests that the waves have an average wavelength of approximately 3.4 <i>R<sub>E</sub></i> and move at an average speed of ~65km s<sup>-1</sup> in an anti-sunward and northward direction, despite the spacecraft location somewhat south of the GSE <i>Z=0</i> plane. This wave propagation direction lies close to perpendicular to the average magnetic field direction in the external magnetosheath, suggesting that these waves may preferentially propagate in the direction that requires no bending of these external field lines<br><br> <b>Key words.</b> Magnetospheric physics (magnetospheric configuration and dynamics; MHD waves and unstabilities; solar wind-magnetosphere interactions

Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Halide Post-Perovskite 3-Cyanopyridinium Lead Tribromide for Optoelectronic Applications

2D halide perovskite-like semiconductors are attractive materials for various optoelectronic applications, from photovoltaics to lasing. To date, the most studied families of such low-dimensional halide perovskite-like compounds are Ruddlesden–Popper, Dion–Jacobson, and other phases that can be derived from 3D halide perovskites by slicing along different crystallographic directions, which leads to the spatially isotropic corner-sharing connectivity type of metal-halide octahedra in the 2D layer plane. In this work, a new family of hybrid organic–inorganic 2D lead halides is introduced, by reporting the first example of the hybrid organic–inorganic post-perovskite 3-cyanopyridinium lead tribromide (3cp)PbBr3. The post-perovskite structure has unique octahedra connectivity type in the layer plane: a typical “perovskite-like” corner-sharing connectivity pattern in one direction, and the rare edge-sharing connectivity pattern in the other. Such connectivity leads to significant anisotropy in the material properties within the inorganic layer plane. Moreover, the dense organic cation packing results in the formation of 1D fully organic bands in the electronic structure, offering the prospects of the involvement of the organic subsystem into material's optoelectronic properties. The (3cp)PbBr3 clearly shows the 2D quantum size effect with a bandgap around 3.2 eV and typical broadband self-trapped excitonic photoluminescence at temperatures below 200 K

The effects of ionospheric 'phase mixing' on a distributed driven shear Alfvén ulf pulsation'

A numerical simulation study of the ultra-low frequency (ULF) H-component magnetic field at the Earth's surface arising from a perturbation ionospheric Hall current has been developed. The Hall current system is driven by field-aligned currents (FACs) associated with shear Alfvén field line resonances (FLRs) driven by fast mode global cavity oscillations. The ionospheric phase mixing of the Hall current manifests itself in a number of ways in the ground field, these are: (i) Smoothing the spectral maxima of the ground signal: (ii) Loss in clarity of the harmonic structure of the spectra: (iii) A small increase in the damping rate of the ULF wave at the resonance latitude and (iv) small localised minimum in the spectra at the resonance latitude