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Observations of field‐aligned currents at the plasma sheet boundary: An ISEE‐1 and 2 survey
Author(s) -
Elphic R. C.,
Mutch P. A.,
Russell C. T.
Publication year - 1985
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/gl012i010p00631
Subject(s) - plasma sheet , physics , substorm , current sheet , geophysics , plasma , earth radius , polarity (international relations) , field (mathematics) , magnetometer , boundary (topology) , magnetosphere , magnetic field , polar , astrophysics , computational physics , atomic physics , astronomy , magnetohydrodynamics , nuclear physics , chemistry , mathematical analysis , biochemistry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , cell
Using ISEE‐1 and 2 magnetometer data we have performed a survey of field‐aligned currents at the boundary of the plasmasheet between 10 and 22 Earth radii down the magnetotail. Most cases are observed as the plasma sheet expands across the spacecraft. We find that the currents are most often observed flowing earthward throughout this region of the tail; however, a fraction of the cases correspond to tailward flowing currents and these tend to be found dawnward of midnight. Toward dusk no tailward currents are found. The currents at the plasma sheet boundary should map to the high latitude boundary of the auroral zone, and consequently one might expect them to have a Region 1 polarity; just the opposite is observed. Typical sheet current densities for these cases are roughly 5 mA/m.