Slavin, JA; Hesse, M; Owen, CJ; Taguchi, S; Fairfield, DH; Lepping, RP; Kokuban, S; ... Sutcliffe, PR; + view all Slavin, JA; Hesse, M; Owen, CJ; Taguchi, S; Fairfield, DH; Lepping, RP; Kokuban, S; Mukai, T; Lui, ATY; Anderson, RR; Matsumoto, H; Sutcliffe, PR; - view fewer (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.

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