Evidence of standing waves during a Pi2 pulsation event observed on Cluster

• Observations of Pi2 pulsations at middle and low latitudes have been explained in terms of cavity mode resonances, whereas transients associated with field-aligned currents appear to be responsible for the high latitude Pi2 signature. Data from Cluster are used to study a Pi2 event observed at 18:09 UTC on 21 January 2003, when three of the satellites were within the plasmasphere (L=4.7,4.5 and 4.6) while the fourth was on the plasmapause or in the plasmatrough (L=6.6). Simultaneous pulsations at ground observatories and the injection of particles at geosynchronous orbit corroborate the occurrence of a substorm. Evidence of a cavity mode resonance is established by considering the phase relationship between the orthogonal electric and magnetic field components associated with radial and field-aligned standing waves. The relative phase between satellites located on either side of the geomagnetic equator indicates that the field-aligned oscillation is an odd harmonic. Finite azimuthal Poynting flux suggests that the cavity is effectively open ended and the azimuthal wave number is estimated as m similar to 13.5.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Fusion, plasma och rymdfysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

magnetospheric physics

MHD waves and instabilities

plasmasphere

storms and substorms

pi-2 pulsations

power spectra

magnetic pulsations

ulf pulsations

field-line

geomagnetic micropulsations

geosynchronous orbit

hydromagnetic-waves

inner magnetosphere

substorm onsets

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)