THEMIS statistical study on the plasma properties of high-speed flows in Earth’s magnetotail

• Published in: Science China. Earth sciences Vol. 59; no. 3; pp. 548 - 555
• Main Authors: Pan, DongXiao, Sun, WeiJie, Shi, QuanQi, Tian, AnMin, Yao, ZhongHua, Fu, SuiYan, Zong, QiuGang, Zhou, XuZhi, Pu, ZuYin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Science China Press 01.03.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Earth; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Magnetic fields; Plasma; Research Paper; Statistics; Studies; high-speed flow; interplanetary magnetic field; earthward evolution
• ISSN: 1674-7313; 1869-1897
• DOI: 10.1007/s11430-015-5199-y

Using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) observations from 2007 to 2011 tail seasons, we study the plasma properties of high speed flows (HSFs) and background plasma sheet events (BPSs) in Earth’s magnetotail (| Y GSM |<13R E , |Z GSM |<5R E ,–30R E <X GSM <–6R E ), and their correlations with solar wind parameters. Statistical results show that the closer the HSFs and BPSs are to the Earth, the hotter they become, and the temperature increase of HSFs is larger than that of BPSs. The density and temperature ratios between HSFs and BPSs are also larger when events are closer to Earth. We also find that the best correlations between the HSFs (BPSs) density and the solar wind density occur when the solar wind density is averaged 2 (3.5) hours prior to the onset of HSFs (BPSs). The normalized densities of both HSFs and BPSs are correlated with the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) θ angles which are averaged 3 hours before the observation time. Further analysis indicates that both HSFs and BPSs become denser during the northward IMF period.