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Plasma sheet beyond the distant neutral line
Author(s) -
Nishida A.,
Mukai T.,
Yamamoto T.,
Kokubun S.
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 - 10.1029/98gl02601
Subject(s) - plasma sheet , physics , plasma , interplanetary magnetic field , magnetic reconnection , magnetic field , line (geometry) , solar wind , magnetic flux , field line , astrophysics , geophysics , magnetosphere , computational physics , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics
We have studied the properties of the plasma sheet in the distant magnetotail during a 12‐h interval when the GEOTAIL satellite stayed rather continually in the plasma sheet. When magnetic reconnection was operative at the distant neutral line the tailward flow speed in the distant plasma sheet is given by the sum of the Alfven speed and the tailward flow speed in the tail lobe. Appreciable twist of the tail should be incorporated in order to properly estimate the magnetic flux that traverses the distant neutral sheet to the south. The magnetic field beyond the distant neutral line is characterized by active and persistent oscillations whose power spectrum has a kink around 0.01 Hz. These oscillations roughly satisfy the Walén relation and could be due to incidence of the interplanetary Alfven waves along the IMF‐type field lines that fill the plasma sheet beyond the distant neutral line.