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Science 12 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5933, p. 1391
DOI: 10.1126/science.1168045
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Technical Comments

Response to Comment on "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 Kepko7

Lui challenges our conclusion that magnetic reconnection triggered the onset of a magnetospheric substorm. However, Lui incorrectly uses the auroral electrojet index instead of ground auroral and magnetic field pulsation signatures to determine substorm onset; single velocity and magnetic field components instead of full vectors and particle distributions to identify reconnection onset; and preliminary auroral electrojet–low index (AL) instead of ground magnometer, auroral, and magnetotail data to claim pre-existing activity.

1 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
2 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94729, USA.
3 Code 674, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
4 Technical University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, D-38106, Germany.
5 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada.
6 Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2M7, Canada.
7 Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: vassilis{at}ucla.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)