Abstract
Abstract. Multi-spacecraft data from Cluster allow for a more detailed magnetopause and boundary layer structure determination than ever before. Reconstruction methods, in which the time variability observed during a pass is interpreted as being due to boundary motion and/or spatial structure, are particularly well suited for this task. Such methods rely on the availability of plasma and field data and adopt the tangential discontinuity hypothesis to determine the motion, acceleration, boundary structure, boundary curvature and surface wave speed over an extended time interval. In this paper one- and two-dimensional reconstruction methods are applied to multi-spacecraft data for the first time.
Highlights
Reconstruction methods, in which the time variability observed during a pass is interpreted as being due to boundary motion and/or spatial structure, are well suited for this task
The solar wind−magnetosphere interaction leads to the formation of a magnetospheric boundary that consists of the magnetopause (MP) and often, but not always, a boundary layer (BL)
The time profiles that would result from the known boundary motion can be predicted; the good agreement with the observed time profiles indicates that the difference between both can be fully explained in terms of the spacecraft separation along x only, confirming again the 1-D geometry of the MP/BL
Summary
The solar wind−magnetosphere interaction leads to the formation of a magnetospheric boundary that consists of the magnetopause (MP) and often, but not always, a boundary layer (BL) This position of this boundary is known to change with time. It is possible to deconvolve the data to obtain the spatial structure of the boundary They should be distinguished from magnetic field-based reconstructions (Walthour et al, 1993; Hau and Sonnerup, 1999; Hu and Sonnerup, 2003) They are fairly recent; we apply them here in their multispacecraft form to Cluster data for the first time. Empirical reconstructions put data from different instruments in the same topological context This provides us with a remarkably complete picture of boundary structure
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