Journal
ANNALES GEOPHYSICAE
Volume 30, Issue 3, Pages 489-501Publisher
COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
DOI: 10.5194/angeo-30-489-2012
Keywords
Magnetospheric physics; Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers; Solar wind-magnetosphere interactions
Categories
Funding
- CNRS-INSU
- STFC [ST/H00260X/1, ST/H004130/1, ST/G008493/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/H004130/1, ST/G008493/1, ST/H00260X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- UK Space Agency [ST/J004758/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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On some rare occasions, data from the Cluster Ion Spectrometer (CIS) in the mid-altitude cusp reveal overlapping ion populations under northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). While the poleward part of the cusp exhibits the expected reverse dispersion due to lobe reconnection, its equatorward part shows a second ion population at higher-energy that coexists with the low energy tail of the dispersion. This second population is either dispersionless or slightly dispersed with energies increasing with increasing latitudes, indicative of lobe reconnection as well. Our analysis of a case that occurred 3 September 2002 when the IMF stayed northward for more than two hours suggests that the second population comes from the opposite hemisphere and is very likely on newly-closed field lines. We interpret this overlap of cusp populations as a clear mid-altitude signature of re-closed magnetic field lines by double lobe reconnection (reconnection in both hemispheres) under northward IMF. This interpretation is supported by modelling performed with the Cooling model and an MHD model.
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