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Detailed Reference Information
Lee et al. 2004
Lee, E., Wilber, M., Parks, G.K., Min, K.W. and Lee, D.-Y. (2004). Modeling of remote sensing of thin current sheet. Geophysical Research Letters 31: doi: 10.1029/2004GL020331. issn: 0094-8276.

Cluster encountered a thin current sheet in the magnetotail during a substorm on Oct. 1, 2001. The phase space distributions observed by Cluster CIS showed large gradients in the phase space with ions existing only in one hemisphere of the phase space. It has been suggested that these non-gyrotropic distributions come from remote sensing of a thin current sheet by spacecrafts outside the current sheet. We present the results of a test particle simulation that confirm non-gyrotropic distributions can arise from remote sensing of a thin current sheet. These non-gyrotropic distributions can yield large velocity moments even when the plasma is stationary. The large velocity moments are not in the convective flow direction that would be normal to the current sheet. Instead they are along the n ¿ B direction where n is normal to the boundary. These modeling results reinforce the importance of examining full particle distributions when studying plasma sheet dynamics.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetotail, Magnetospheric Physics, Magnetotail boundary layers, Magnetospheric Physics, Numerical modeling, Magnetospheric Physics, Plasma sheet
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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