4.2 Article

Proton/electron temperature ratio in the magnetotail

Journal

ANNALES GEOPHYSICAE
Volume 29, Issue 12, Pages 2253-2257

Publisher

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH
DOI: 10.5194/angeo-29-2253-2011

Keywords

Magnetospheric physics; Magnetotail; Plasma convection; Plasma sheet

Funding

  1. RFBR [10-05-91001, 10-02-93114]
  2. Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [I429-N16]
  3. Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [I 429] Funding Source: researchfish
  4. Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/H004130/1, ST/G008493/1, ST/H00260X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
  5. UK Space Agency [ST/J004758/1] Funding Source: researchfish
  6. STFC [ST/G008493/1, ST/H00260X/1, ST/H004130/1] Funding Source: UKRI

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We study the temperature ratio of protons and electrons based on statistics of Cluster observations in the Earth's magnetotail from 2001 to 2004. During these years, from June to November, the Cluster spacecraft visited the plasma sheet at the distance r similar to - 19 R-E. We use proton and electron moments collected in the central region of the plasma sheet (|Z| < 5R(E)). We find an average ratio of proton and electron temperatures < T-p/T-e > approximate to 3.5. The dependence of T-p on T-e can be approximated by the power-law function: T-p approximate to 11T(e)(0.62), where T-p and Te are measured in MK. A previous reported ratio < T-p/T-e > similar to 7 is limited to small electron temperatures < 20 MK. The observations with the high electron temperature correspond to smaller values of the electron density and larger values of the proton and electron bulk velocities. A correlation between T-e and curlometer current density is not found.

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