Electrodynamic Context of Magnetotail Dynamics Signatures Observed by Magnetospheric Multi-Scal
Friday, October 2, 2015: 5:50 PM
Brian J Anderson1, Marilia Samara2, C. T. Russell3, Robert J Strangeway3, Ferdinand Plaschke4, Werner Magnes5, David Fischer5, Haje Korth6, Robin J Barnes7, Colin L Waters8, Rumi Nakamura9, Wolfgang Baumjohann5, Roy B Torbert10, Hannes Karl Leinweber11, Kenneth R Bromund12, Guan Le2, Mark Chutter13, James A Slavin14, Larry Kepko15, Olivier Le Contel16, Barry Mauk6, Joseph H Westlake17, Jesper W Gjerloev6 and J. Michael Ruohoniemi18, (1)Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (4)IWF ÖAW, Graz, Austria, (5)Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria, (6)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States, (7)JHU/APL, Laurel, MD, United States, (8)University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia, (9)Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria, (10)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (11)Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (12)NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (13)University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (14)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (15)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (16)Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (UMR7648), CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/UPMC/Univ. Paris Sud/Obs. de Paris, Paris, France, (17)JHUAPL, Laurel, MD, United States, (18)Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, United States
Abstract:
After successful launch and deployment on 14 March 2015, the four Magnetosphere Multi-Scale (MMS) spacecraft were commissioned during the first local time precession of the orbit line of apsides across the magnetotail from dawn to dusk. Although science operations were not scheduled to begin until September 2015, signatures of magnetotail dynamics were observed during payload and fleet commissioning, including dispersionless particle injections, magnetic field dipolarizations, bursty-bulk flows, travelling compression regions, and flux ropes. The electrodynamic context of these events is assessed using correlative observations from low Earth orbit and ground-based instruments including the Active Magnetosphere and Polar Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE), SuperMAG, and SuperDARN. The somewhat surprising prevalence of substorm current onsets in AMPERE data together with the electroject signatures in SuperMAG and convection flows in SuperDARN allow us to identify how the magnetotail signatures observed at high altitudes in the magnetotail are related to the nighttime electrodynamics in the ionosphere. Particular attention is paid to the relationships of dipolarization fronts and dispersionless particle injections at MMS to ionospheric signatures of substorm onset and electrojet intensification.
