Slavin, JA and Hesse, M and Owen, CJ and Taguchi, S and Fairfield, DH and Lepping, RP and Kokuban, S and Mukai, T and Lui, ATY and Anderson, RR and Matsumoto, H and Sutcliffe, PR (1999) Dual spacecraft observations of lobe magnetic field perturbations before, during and after plasmoid release. Geophysical Research Letters , 26 (19) 2897 - 2900. 10.1029/1999GL003606.
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Abstract
This study examines a data set returned by IMP 8 and Geotail on January 29, 1995 during a substorm which resulted in the ejection of a plasmoid. The two spacecraft (s/c) were situated in the north lobe of the tail and both observed a traveling compression region (TCR). We show that in this instance dual s/c measurements can be used to model all three dimensions of the underlying plasmoid and to estimate its rate of expansion. For this event plasmoid dimensions of ΔX ∼18, ΔY ∼30, and ΔZ ∼10 Re are determined from the IMP 8 and Geotail observations. Furthermore, a factor of ∼2 increase in the amplitude of the TCR occurred in the 1.5 min it took to move from IMP 8 to Geotail. Modeled using conservation of magnetic flux, this increase in lobe compression implies that the underlying plasmoid was expanding at a rate of ∼140 km/s. Finally, a reconfiguration of the lobe magnetic field followed plasmoid ejection which moved magnetic flux tubes into the wake behind the plasmoid where they would become available to feed the reconnection region.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Dual spacecraft observations of lobe magnetic field perturbations before, during and after plasmoid release |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1029/1999GL003606 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999GL003606 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright 1999 by the American Geophysical Union |
| Keywords: | Traveling compression regions, Geotail observations, Isee-3, Magnetotail, Evolution |
| UCL classification: | UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Space and Climate Physics |
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