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Inductive electric field at the magnetopause
Author(s) -
Heikkila Walter J.
Publication year - 1982
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/gl009i008p00877
Subject(s) - magnetopause , magnetosheath , electric field , magnetosphere , physics , geophysics , curl (programming language) , boundary layer , magnetic field , computational physics , mechanics , computer science , quantum mechanics , programming language
The electric field data for two crossings of the magnetopause by ISEE‐1 on November 20, 1977, have been analyzed with high time resolution. In both cases the electric field has a negative dawn‐dusk component in the boundary layer, so it must reverse somewhere within the current layer to the positive value outside. If there is a component parallel to the moving magnetopause current it is small, and by no means obvious. In the case of the exit crossing from the boundary layer to the magnetosheath the data show that the electric field vector is turning for about two seconds at roughly the satellite spin rate; this changing direction suggests that the electric field has a curl. Such a curl could be caused by a travelling localized perturbation of the magnetopause surface current associated with impulsive plasma transport through the magnetopause.