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Ionospheric Footprints of Detached Magnetotail Interchange Heads
Author(s) -
Panov E. V.,
Baumjohann W.,
Nakamura R.,
Pritchett P. L.,
Weygand J. M.,
Kubyshkina M. V.
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl083070
Subject(s) - physics , ionosphere , plasma sheet , magnetic reconnection , substorm , geophysics , magnetometer , ballooning , plasma , astrophysics , magnetosphere , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , tokamak
As it was recently predicted, the kinetic ballooning/interchange instability (BICI) can provoke reconnection onsets that lead to detached azimuthally thin earthward intrusions (heads) of depleted plasma tubes when eq ⩽ 100. Such detached BICI heads would be seen as localized earthward-propagating dipolarization fronts. Using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms observations in the plasma sheet at XGSM ≈ −11 Re and conjugate All-Sky Imager and magnetometer networks observations on the ground, we show four examples when prominent dipolarization fronts with moderate earthward flows were observed amidst azimuthally drifting interchange heads and concurrently with the ionospheric current intensifications near Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms footprints and auroral bright spots originating from dimmer azimuthal beads/rays. These events support the idea that some of the BICI heads detach from the region with reversed radial gradient of Bz. The de...