Coordinated Cluster/Double Star observations of dayside reconnection signatures

Dunlop, M. W., Taylor, M. G. G. T., Davies, J. A., Owen, C. J., Pitout, F., Fazakerley, A. N., Pu, Z., Laakso, H., Bogdanova, Y. V., Zong, Q.-G., Shen, C., Nykyri, K., Lavraud, B., Milan, S. E., Phan, T. D., Rème, H., Escoubet, C. P., Carr, C. M., Cargill, P., Lockwood, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7397-2172 and Sonnerup, B. (2005) Coordinated Cluster/Double Star observations of dayside reconnection signatures. Annales Geophysicae, 23 (8). pp. 2867-2875. ISSN 0992-7689 doi: 10.5194/angeo-23-2867-2005

Abstract/Summary

The recent launch of the equatorial spacecraft of the Double Star mission, TC-1, has provided an unprecedented opportunity to monitor the southern hemisphere dayside magnetopause boundary layer in conjunction with northern hemisphere observations by the quartet of Cluster spacecraft. We present first results of one such situation where, on 6 April 2004, both Cluster and the Double Star TC-1 spacecraft were on outbound transits through the dawnside magnetosphere. The observations are consistent with ongoing reconnection on the dayside magnetopause, resulting in a series of flux transfer events (FTEs) seen both at Cluster and TC-1, which appear to lie north and south of the reconnection line, respectively. In fact, the observed polarity and motion of each FTE signature advocates the existence of an active reconnection region consistently located between the positions of Cluster and TC-1, with Cluster observing northward moving FTEs with +/− polarity, whereas TC-1 sees −/+ polarity FTEs. This assertion is further supported by the application of a model designed to track flux tube motion for the prevailing interplanetary conditions. The results from this model show, in addition, that the low-latitude FTE dynamics are sensitive to changes in convected upstream conditions. In particular, changing the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) clock angle in the model suggests that TC-1 should miss the resulting FTEs more often than Cluster and this is borne out by the observations.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/38590
Identification Number/DOI	10.5194/angeo-23-2867-2005
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Copernicus Publications
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