UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Cluster PEACE observations of electron pressure tensor divergence in the magnetotail

Henderson, PD; Owen, CJ; Lahiff, AD; Alexeev, IV; Fazakerley, AN; Lucek, E; Reme, H; (2006) Cluster PEACE observations of electron pressure tensor divergence in the magnetotail. Geophysical Research Letters , 33 (22) , Article L22106. 10.1029/2006GL027868. Green open access

[thumbnail of 2006GL027868.pdf]
Preview
PDF
2006GL027868.pdf
Available under License : See the attached licence file.

Download (181kB)

Abstract

Cluster crossed the magnetotail neutral sheet on four occasions between 16: 38 and 16: 43 UT on 08/17/2003. The four-spacecraft capabilities of Cluster are used to determine spatial gradients from the magnetic field vectors and, for the first time, full electron pressure tensors. We find that the contribution to the electric field from the Hall term (max of similar to 6 mV/m) pointed towards the neutral sheet, whereas that from the electron pressure divergence ( max of similar to 1 mV/m) pointed away from the neutral sheet. The electric field contributions in this direction were closely anti-correlated. During this period Clusters 1 and 4 were sometimes above and below the neutral sheet respectively. This allowed the simultaneous observation of magnetic fields that are interpreted as two quadrants of the Hall magnetic field system. An associated field-aligned current system was detected using the curlometer and moments of the particle distributions.

Type: Article
Title: Cluster PEACE observations of electron pressure tensor divergence in the magnetotail
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1029/2006GL027868
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006GL027868
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union
Keywords: Current sheet structure, Collisionless reconnection, Magnetic reconnection, Field, Geotail, Region
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/9892
Downloads since deposit
248Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item