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Submitted on May 14, 2008
Accepted on July 1, 2008
Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset
Vassilis Angelopoulos 1*,James P. McFadden 2,Davin Larson 2,Charles W. Carlson 2,Stephen B. Mende 2,Harald Frey 2,Tai Phan 2,David G. Sibeck 3,Karl-Heinz Glassmeier 4,Uli Auster 4,Eric Donovan 5,Ian R. Mann 6,I. Jonathan Rae 6,Christopher T. Russell 1,Andrei Runov 1,Xu-Zhi Zhou 1,Larry Kepko 7
1 IGPP/ESS, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA. 2 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA. 3 Code 674, NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA. 4 TUBS, Braunschweig, D-38106, Germany. 5 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. 6 Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 7 Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Vassilis Angelopoulos , E-mail: vassilis{at}ucla.edu
Magnetospheric substorms explosively release solar wind energypreviously stored in Earth’s magnetotail, encompassingthe entire magnetosphere and producing spectacular auroral displays.It has been unclear whether a substorm is triggered by a disruptionof the electrical current flowing across the near-Earth magnetotail,at ~10 RE (RE = Earth Radius, or 6374 km), or by the processof magnetic reconnection typically seen farther out in the magnetotail,at ~20 to 30 RE. We report on simultaneous measurements in themagnetotail at multiple distances, at the time of substorm onset.Reconnection was observed at 20 RE, at least 1.5 min beforeauroral intensification, at least 2 min before near-Earth currentdisruption, and about 3 min before substorm expansion. Theseresults demonstrate that substorms are likely initiated by tailreconnection.
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In Science Magazine
TECHNICAL COMMENTS
A. T. Y. Lui (12 June 2009) Science324 (5933), 1391-b.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1167726] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
TECHNICAL COMMENTS
Vassilis Angelopoulos, James P. McFadden, Davin Larson, Charles W. Carlson, Stephen B. Mende, Harald Frey, Tai Phan, David G. Sibeck, Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, Uli Auster, Eric Donovan, Ian R. Mann, I. Jonathan Rae, Christopher T. Russell, Andrei Runov, Xu-Zhi Zhou, and Larry Kepko (12 June 2009) Science324 (5933), 1391-c.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1168045] |Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »|Supporting Online Material »
PERSPECTIVES
A. A. Petrukovich (15 August 2008) Science321 (5891), 920.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1162426] |Summary »|Full Text »|PDF »
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Comment on "Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset".
Response to Comment on "Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset".
V. Angelopoulos, J. P. McFadden, D. Larson, C. W. Carlson, S. B. Mende, H. Frey, T. Phan, D. G. Sibeck, K.-H. Glassmeier, U. Auster, et al. (2009)
Science
324, 1391
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
