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Zong et al. 2004
Zong, Q.-G., Fritz, T.A., Pu, Z.Y., Fu, S.Y., Baker, D.N., Zhang, H., Lui, A.T., Vogiatzis, I., Glassmeier, K.-H., Korth, A., Daly, P.W., Balogh, A. and Reme, H. (2004). Cluster observations of earthward flowing plasmoid in the tail. Geophysical Research Letters 31: doi: 10.1029/2004GL020692. issn: 0094-8276.

The energetic electrons and ions embedded in Earthward-moving plasmoid structures have been observed. These plasmoids are associated with a rotational local Bz component (bi-polar) signature. Energetic electrons are found to be confined in a smaller spatial region than ions inside the plasmoid. Energetic ions and electrons seem to be a good indicator for the structure boundary. The fleet of Cluster spacecraft cross the plasmoid structure in a first entry, last out order (Note: when spacecraft cross a planar discontinuity, e.g. magnetopause, they will be in first entry, first out order). This documents the fact that the plasmoid has a non-planar nested structure. The large separation distance (around 1 RE) of the Cluster satellites in October 2002 is an advantage to provide constraints on the size and shape of the plasmoid structure of interest. In addition, the plasmoid (with closed field lines) should preserve the ion composition information where it is formed. The ion composition observed in the plasmoid shows significantly lower O and He than in the ambient plasma. This implies few heavy ions are involved in the reconnection process where the plasmoid is formed. Multiple flux ropes/plasmoids observation presented in this paper can be interpreted as strong evidence for multiple X-lines.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetotail, Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetotail boundary layers, Magnetospheric Physics, Energetic particles, trapped, Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma sheet, Magnetospheric Physics, Storms and substorms
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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