Simultaneous in-situ observations of the signatures of dayside reconnection at the high- and low-latitude magnetopause

• Published in: Annales geophysicae (1988) Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 445 - 460
• Main Authors: WILD, J. A, MILAN, S. E, COOLING, B. M. A, BALOGH, A, DALY, P. W, COWLEY, S. W. H, BOSQUED, J. M, REME, H, NAGAI, T, KOKUBUN, S, SAITO, Y, MUKAI, T, DAVIES, J. A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau European Geophysical Society 01.01.2005; European Geosciences Union; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Ocean, Atmosphere; Physics of the high neutral atmosphere; Physics of the ionosphere; Physics of the magnetosphere; Sciences of the Universe; High latitude; CLUSTER satellite; models; magnetic field; Southern Hemisphere; Plasma physics; Space plasma physics (Magnetic reconnedtion); Geotail satellite; Position; Magnetosheath; Magnetopause; Magnetic tube; Perturbation; dynamics; Northern Hemisphere; Flux tube; Magnetospheric physics (Magnetosheath; Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics); Low latitude; Flux transfer; Simultaneous observation
• ISSN: 0992-7689; 1432-0576; 1432-0576
• DOI: 10.5194/angeo-23-445-2005

We present magnetic field and particle data recorded by the Cluster and Geotail satellites in the vicinity of the high- and low-latitude dayside magnetopause, respectively, on 17 February 2003. A favourable conjunction of these spacecraft culminated in the observation of a series of flux transfer events (FTEs), characterised by bipolar perturbations in the component of the magnetic field normal to the magnetopause, an enhancement in the overall magnetic field strength, and field tilting effects in the plane of the magnetopause whilst the satellites were located on the magnetosheath side of the boundary. Whilst a subset of the FTE signatures observed could be identified as being either normal or reverse polarity, the rapid succession of events observed made it difficult to classify some of the signatures unambiguously. Nevertheless, by considering the source region and motion of flux tubes opened by magnetic reconnection at low latitudes (i.e. between Cluster and Geotail), we demonstrate that the observations are consistent with the motion of northward (southward) and tailward moving flux tubes anchored in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere passing in close proximity to the Cluster (Geotail) satellites. We are able to demonstrate that a multi-spacecraft approach, coupled with a realistic model of flux tube motion in the magnetosheath, enables us to infer the approximate position of the reconnection site, which in this case was located at near-equatorial latitudes.