Plasma sheet instability related to the westward traveling surge

Abstract

The detailed analysis of an isolated dispersionless substorm is performed on the basis of field and particle data collected in situ by the geostationary satellite GEOS 2 and of data from ground‐based instruments installed close to the GEOS 2 magnetic footprint. These data give evidence for (1) quasi‐periodic variations of the magnetic field configuration, which is alternatively taillike and dipolelike, (2) in‐phase oscillations of the flux of energetic electrons, which is high when the configuration is dipolelike and vice versa, (3) a gradient in the flux of energetic ions, which is, on the average, earthward but undergoes large fluctuations around this average direction, and (4) large transient fluctuations of the quasi‐dc electric field, which reverses its direction from eastward to westward. It is shown that these results are consistent with the development of an instability which leads to a westward propagating “wave”. The source of the instability is the differential drift of energetic electrons and ions in a highly stressed magnetic field configuration (in a high β plasma). Evidence is given for a system of localized field‐aligned currents flowing alternately earthward and equatorward at the leading and trailing edges of the westward propagating wave. This current system resulting from the temporal development of the instability produces the so‐called Pi 2 pulsations, at the ionospheric level. The closure of this current system in the equatorial region leads to a current antiparallel to the tail current, and therefore to its reduction or cancellation. This reduction/cancellation of the tail current restores the dipole magnetic field (dipolarization) and generates a large westward directed induced electric field (injection). Hence, dipolarization and injection are the consequences of the instability. Finally, it is suggested that the westward traveling surge observed simultaneously by all‐sky cameras, close to the magnetic field of GEOS 2, is the image of the instability in the equatorial region transmitted to the upper atmosphere by precipitating electrons.