The variation of reconnection rate at the dayside magnetopause and cusp ion precipitation

Lockwood, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7397-2172 and Smith, M. F. (1992) The variation of reconnection rate at the dayside magnetopause and cusp ion precipitation. Journal of Geophysical Research, 97 (A10). pp. 14841-14847. ISSN 0148-0227 doi: 10.1029/92JA01261

Abstract/Summary

A method is presented which allows estimation of the variation of the rate of magnetic reconnection at the day side magnetopause. This is achieved using observations of the cusp particle precipitation made by low-altitude polar-orbiting spacecraft. In this paper we apply the technique to a previously published example of a cusp intersection by the DMSP F7 satellite. It is shown that the cusp signature in this case was produced by three separate bursts of reconnection which were of the order of 10 min apart, each lasting roughly 1 min. This is similar to the variation of reconnection rate which is required to explain typical flux transfer event signatures at the magnetopause.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/38830
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
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