MMS/Cluster joint measurements at the vicinity of the plasma sheet boundary layer

Olivier Le Contel (1) , Alessandro Retino (1) , Alexandra Alexandrova (1) , Thomas Chust (1) , Konrad Steinvall (2) , Soboh Alqeeq (1) , Patrick Canu (1) , Dominique Fontaine (1) , Iannis Dandouras (3) , Christopher Carr (4) , Sergio Toledo (5) , Andrew Fazakerley (6) , Natasha Doss (6) , Stefan Kiehas (7) , Rumi Nakamura (7) , Yuri Khotyaintsev (2) , Frederick Wilder (8) , Narges Ahmadi (8) , Daniel Gershman (9) , Robert Strangeway (10)

1 LPP - Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
2 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Uppsala / Kiruna]
3 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
4 Department of Earth Science and Engineering [Imperial College London]
5 Departamento Electromagnetismo and Electronica
6 MSSL - Mullard Space Science Laboratory
7 IWF - Space Research Institute of Austrian Academy of Sciences
8 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
9 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
10 IGPP - Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics [Los Angeles]

<p>On 28th of August 2018 at 5:30 UT, MMS and Cluster were located in the magnetotail at about 16 earth radii (RE). They both suddenly crossed plasma interfaces. Located in the post midnight sector, Cluster transitioned from a cold plasma sheet to a hot plasma sheet whereas MMS, located at 4 RE duskward of Cluster, transitioned from a similar cold plasma sheet to the lobe region via a very short period in a hot plasma sheet. At 05:50 UT MMS returned to a hot plasma sheet and detected a quasi-parallel earthward flow ~ 400 km/s and increased energetic ion and electron fluxes. We use measurements from both missions during this conjunction to describe the possible macroscale evolution of the magnetotail as well as some associated kinetic processes. In particular, we analyze fast and slow non linear electrostatic waves propagating tailward which are detected in the so called electron boundary layer as well as in the hot plasma sheet. We discuss their possible generation mechanisms and link with the large scale evolution of the magnetotail. Finally, we investigate possible effects related to the dawn-dusk asymmetry of the magnetotail.</p>

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]

Olivier Le Contel, Alessandro Retino, Alexandra Alexandrova, Thomas Chust, Konrad Steinvall, et al.. MMS/Cluster joint measurements at the vicinity of the plasma sheet boundary layer. EGU General Assembly 2020, May 2020, Vienna, Austria. ⟨10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-18357⟩. ⟨hal-02948279⟩