Simultaneous Multispacecraft Probing of Electron Phase Space Holes

• We present a series of electron holes observed simultaneously on four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft in the plasma sheet boundary layer. The multispacecraft probing shows that the electron holes propagated quasi-parallel to the local magnetic field with velocities of a few thousand kilometers per second with parallel spatial scales of a few kilometers (a few Debye lengths). The simultaneous multispacecraft probing allows analyzing the 3-D configuration of the electron holes. We estimate the electric field gradients and charge densities associated with the electrons holes. The electric fields are fit to simple 3-D electron hole models to estimate their perpendicular scales and demonstrate that the electron holes were generally not axially symmetric with respect to the local magnetic field. We emphasize that most of the electron holes had a complicated structure not reproduced by the simple models widely used in single-spacecraft studies.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

electron phase space holes

inner magnetosphere

multispacecraft observations

three-dimensional structure of electron holes

Boundary layers

Electric fields

Magnetic fields

Magnetosphere

Phase space methods

Plasma sheaths

Complicated structures

Electric field gradients

Electron hole

Magnetospheric multi scale

Phase-space hole

Plasma sheet boundary layer

Electrons

electromagnetic field

electron

observational method

plasma

spacecraft

three-dimensional modeling

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