Stawarz, JE;
Eastwood, JP;
Varsani, A;
Ergun, RE;
Shay, MA;
Nakamura, R;
Phan, TD;
... Torbert, RB; + view all
(2017)
Magnetospheric Multiscale analysis of intense field-aligned Poynting flux near the Earth's plasma sheet boundary.
Geophysical Research Letters
, 44
(14)
pp. 7106-7113.
10.1002/2017GL073685.
Preview |
Text
Stawarz_et_al-2017-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf - Published Version Download (7MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission is employed to examine intense Poynting flux directed along the background magnetic field toward Earth, which reaches amplitudes of nearly 2 mW/m2. The event is located within the plasma sheet but likely near the boundary at a geocentric distance of 9 RE in association with bulk flow signatures. The fluctuations have wavelengths perpendicular to the magnetic field of 124–264 km (compared to an ion gyroradius of 280 km), consistent with highly kinetic Alfvén waves. While the wave vector remains highly perpendicular to the magnetic field, there is substantial variation of the direction in the perpendicular plane. The field-aligned Poynting flux may be associated with kinetic Alfvén waves released along the separatrix by magnetotail reconnection and/or the radiation of waves excited by bursty bulk flow braking and may provide a means through which energy released by magnetic reconnection is transferred to the auroral region.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Magnetospheric Multiscale analysis of intense field-aligned Poynting flux near the Earth's plasma sheet boundary |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/2017GL073685 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073685 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2017. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Poynting flux; kinetic Alfvén waves; bursty bulk flows; magnetic reconnection; Earth's plasma sheet |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1570511 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
