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Rippled Electron‐Scale Structure of a Dipolarization Front
Author(s) -
Pan DongXiao,
Khotyaintsev Yuri V.,
Graham Daniel B.,
Vaivads Andris,
Zhou XuZhi,
André Mats,
Lindqvist PerArne,
Ergun Robert E.,
Le Contel Olivier,
Russell Christopher T.,
Torbert Roy B.,
Giles Barbara,
Burch James L.
Publication year - 2018
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 - 10.1029/2018gl080826
Subject(s) - physics , front (military) , instability , electron , electric field , plasma , cascade , computational physics , turbulence , geophysics , mechanics , meteorology , quantum mechanics , chemistry , chromatography
We use the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to investigate electron‐scale structures at a dipolarization front. The four spacecraft are separated by electron scales and observe large differences in plasma and field parameters within the dipolarization front, indicating strong deviation from typically assumed plane or slightly curved front surface. We attribute this to ripples generated by the lower hybrid drift instability (LHDI) with wave number of k ρ e ≃0.4 and maximum wave potential of ∼1 kV ∼ k B T e . Power law‐like spectra of E ⊥ with slope of −3 indicates the turbulent cascade of LHDI. LHDI is observed together with bursty high‐frequency parallel electric fields, suggesting coupling of LHDI to higher‐frequency electrostatic waves.