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Detailed Reference Information
Aggson et al. 1983
Aggson, T.L., Gambardella, P.J. and Maynard, N.C. (1983). Electric field measurements at the magnetopause 1. Observation of large convective velocities at rotational magnetopause discontinuities. Journal of Geophysical Research 88. doi: 10.1029/JA080i012p10000. issn: 0148-0227.

Large convective electric fields of the order of 10 mV/m (sometimes as high as 22 mV/m) are observed at rotational magnetopause discontinuities. These observations were made with the long cylindrical (179-m base line) probes carried on the ISEE 1 satellite. These electric field observations yield convective velocity magnitudes, V*=‖E¿B/B2‖, of the order of 150 km/s. In this V* format some of these observations are similar to the high speed plasma velocity observations that were made at the magnetopause with the plasma experiment carried on the ISEE 1 satellite. It is shown that, for many of these magnetopause crossings, there exists a special moving coordinate system where the observed electric fields vanish. Such a unique reference system is often used in theoretical studies of magnetic discontinuities. This special coordinate system does not move at the local plasma velocity but moves instead at a velocity intermediate between the convective velocity and the local Alfv¿n velocity. It is used here as a diagnostic tool for the experimental investigation of rotational discontinuities at the magnetopause.

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Journal of Geophysical Research
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