NASA NTRS · 20170003265
Transient, Small-Scale Field-Aligned Currents in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer During Storm Time Substorms
Abstract
We report on field-aligned current observations by the four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft near the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) during two major substorms on 23 June 2015. Small-scale field-aligned currents were found embedded in fluctuating PSBL flux tubes near the Separatrix region. We resolve, for the first time, short-lived earthward (downward) intense field-aligned current sheets with thicknesses of a few tens of kilometers, which are well below the ion scale, on flux tubes moving equatorward earth ward during outward plasma sheet expansion. They coincide with upward field-aligned electron beams with energies of a few hundred eV. These electrons are most likely due to acceleration associated with a reconnection jet or high-energy ion beam-produced disturbances. The observations highlight coupling of multiscale processes in PSBL as a consequence of magnetotail reconnection.
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Nakamura, R., Sergeev, V. A., Baumjohann, W., Plaschke, F., Magnes, W., Fischer, D., Varsani, A., Schmid, D., Nakamura, T. K. M., Russell, C. T., Strangeway, R. J., Leinweber, H. K., Le, G., Bromund, K. R., Pollock, C. J., Giles, B. L., Dorelli, J. C., Gershman, D. J., Paterson, W., Avanov, L. A., Fuselier, S. A., Genestreti, K., Burch, J. L., Torbert, R. B., Chutter, M., Argall, M. R., Anderson, B. J., Lindqvist, P.-A., Marklund, G. T., Khotyaintsev, Y. V., Mauk, B. H., Cohen, I. J., Baker, D. N., Jaynes, A. N., Ergun, R. E., Kepko, E. L., Moore, T. E., Coffey, V.. 2016-05-30. Transient, Small-Scale Field-Aligned Currents in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer During Storm Time Substorms. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20170003265
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