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Contribution of ion reflection to the energy budgets of dipolarization fronts
Author(s) -
Li JiaZheng,
Zhou XuZhi,
Angelopoulos Vassilis,
Liu Jiang,
Runov Andrei,
Pan DongXiao,
Zong QiuGang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl067300
Subject(s) - plasma sheet , front (military) , plasma , physics , reflection (computer programming) , ion , current sheet , computational physics , geophysics , magnetic field , atomic physics , particle acceleration , plasma acceleration , magnetohydrodynamics , magnetosphere , meteorology , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
Dipolarization fronts, earthward propagating structures in the Earth's magnetotail characterized by sharp enhancements of the northward magnetic field, are important sites of energy conversion from electromagnetic to particle energy. The large energy conversion rate observed at these fronts suggests significant particle acceleration and heating, which powers the ambient current sheet to generate plasma flows in the magnetotail plasma sheet and its boundary layer. Using a simple model of ion reflection at the dipolarization front, we estimate ion energy enhancement in the ambient plasma sheet and find it to be comparable with typical electromagnetic energy converted at the front. Validated by dipolarization front statistics from THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) observations, this result suggests the important contribution of ion reflection to the energy budgets of dipolarization fronts during their earthward propagation.