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Plasma and magnetic flux transport associated with auroral breakups
Author(s) -
Lui A. T. Y.,
Liou K.,
Newell P. T.,
Meng C.I.,
Ohtani S.I.,
Ogino T.,
Kokubun S.,
Brittnacher M. J.,
Parks G. K.
Publication year - 1998
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 - 10.1029/1998gl900022
Subject(s) - substorm , plasma sheet , polar , physics , plasma , geophysics , flux (metallurgy) , magnetic reconnection , magnetosphere , astronomy , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
Auroral breakups are the first visible sign of a substorm expansion onset. Keying the plasma sheet behavior to onset times of auroral breakups may help to identify the substorm onset process. With this goal in mind, we have identified a list of auroral breakups based on global imaging data from the Ultraviolet Imager of the POLAR spacecraft for two favorable viewing periods and have examined the simultaneous plasma measurements in the tail from GEOTAIL. Synoptic patterns of plasma transport and magnetic field changes in the tail surrounding the times of auroral breakups are constructed. The results indicate that the plasma sheet activities associated with auroral breakups are transient and spatially localized. These findings are consistent with the scenario in which expansion phase activities are dominated by localized, transient disturbances as portrayed by the substorm synthesis model.