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A flux rope followed by recurring encounters with traveling compression regions: GEOTAIL observations
Author(s) -
Kawano H.,
Yamamoto T.,
Kokubun S.,
Tsuruda K.,
Lui A. T. Y.,
Williams D. J.,
Yumoto K.,
Hayakawa H.,
Nakamura M.,
Okada T.,
Matsuoka A.,
Shiokawa K.,
Nishida A.
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/94gl02101
Subject(s) - rope , physics , plasmoid , flux (metallurgy) , perturbation (astronomy) , magnetic reconnection , magnetic field , magnetic flux , astrophysics , electron , plasma , ion , geophysics , astronomy , chemistry , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , structural engineering , organic chemistry , engineering
This paper reports a peculiar series of events observed with Geotail on October 24, 1992 at X ≃ −80 R E . On this day a combination of a bipolar perturbation in B y and a double‐peaked perturbation in B z , signature of a flux rope, was observed. Following this flux rope, bipolar B z events, identifiable as Traveling Compression Regions (TCRs), were recurrently observed. The axis of the flux rope was deduced to be field‐aligned. Energetic ions (electrons) streamed earthward (tailward) in the flux rope. During the TCRs, the E × B flow showed a bipolar north‐then‐south perturbation, consistent with expected lobe plasma motion. The TCRs corresponded to weak ground magnetic disturbances and Pi2 waves. The observations can be explained by a model in which quasi‐stagnant plasmoids (Nishida et al., 1986) are recurrently generated.