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Power dissipation at slow‐mode shocks in the distant geomagnetic tail
Author(s) -
Feldman W. C.,
Baker D. N.,
Bame S. J.,
Birn J.,
Hones E. W.,
Schwartz S. J.,
Tokar R. L.
Publication year - 1984
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/gl011i010p01058
Subject(s) - physics , poynting vector , plasma sheet , earth's magnetic field , dissipation , plasma , substorm , flux (metallurgy) , astrophysics , convection , computational physics , magnetic field , geophysics , atomic physics , magnetosphere , mechanics , nuclear physics , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , thermodynamics
ISEE‐3 plasma and field data were analyzed to estimate the power dissipated across slow‐mode shocks in the distant geomagnetic tail. A set of 26 unambiguous examples of slow‐mode shocks encountered by ISEE 3 near X(GSM) ≃ −200 R E was used for this purpose. The analysis yielded an average cross‐tail electric field of 1.6 ± 0.7 mV/m an upstream Alfvén Mach number of 0.19 ± 0.08 and a decrease in the Poynting flux at the shocks of 9.2 ± 7.4 × 10 −3 ergs/cm²/s. Assuming a mean cross‐tail potential of 70 keV and a location of the neutral line near X(GSM) ≃ −100 R E , the average power dissipated tailward of the neutral line from lobe magnetic energy density to plasma sheet convection is 5 × 10 18 ergs/s, a value comparable to the total power dissipated near the earth during moderate‐strength substorms.