Overlapping cusp ion structures under Northward IMF: signature of re-closed magnetic field lines?

abstract SM22B-04 On some occasions, Cluster data in the mid-altitude cusp reveal overlapping ion populations under Northward IMF. While the poleward part of the cusp exhibits the expected reverse dispersion due to lobe reconnection, its equatorward part shows a second high-energy ion population tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pitout, Frederic, Escoubet, P.
Other Authors: Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble (LPG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Agence Spatiale Européenne = European Space Agency (ESA)
Format: Conference Object
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00359734
Description
Summary:abstract SM22B-04 On some occasions, Cluster data in the mid-altitude cusp reveal overlapping ion populations under Northward IMF. While the poleward part of the cusp exhibits the expected reverse dispersion due to lobe reconnection, its equatorward part shows a second high-energy ion population that coexists with the low energy tail of the dispersion. This second populations is either dispersionless or slightly dispersed with energies increasing with increasing latitude, indicative of sunward convection. The analysis of data from Cluster fleet and, for one event, of data from the EISCAT Svalbard Radar in conjunction with Cluster, reveals that the second population comes very likely from the opposite hemisphere and is on closed field lines. We interpret this overlap of closed-LLBL and cusp populations in terms of magnetic field lines being opened in one hemisphere by lobe reconnection and re- closed in the other.