Substorm current wedge composition by wedgelets

Abstract

AbstractUnderstanding how a substorm current wedge (SCW) is formed is crucial to comprehending the substorm phenomenon. One SCW formation scenario suggests that the substorm time magnetosphere is coupled to the ionosphere via “wedgelets,” small building blocks of an SCW. Wedgelets are field‐aligned currents (FACs) carried by elemental flux transport units known as dipolarizing flux bundles (DFBs). A DFB is a magnetotail flux tube with magnetic field stronger than that of the ambient plasma. Its leading edge, known as a “dipolarization front” or “reconnection front,” is a product of near‐Earth reconnection. Dipolarizing flux bundles, and thus wedgelets, are localized—each is only <3 RE wide. How these localized wedgelets combine to become large‐scale (several hours of magnetic local time) region‐1‐sense SCW FACs is unclear. To determine how this occurs, we investigated wedgelets statistically using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) data. The results show wedgelet asymmetries: in the dawn (dusk) sector of the magnetotail, a wedgelet has more FAC toward (away from) the Earth than away from (toward) the Earth, so the net FAC is toward (away from) the Earth. The combined effect of many wedgelets is therefore the same as that of large‐scale region‐1‐sense SCW, supporting the idea that they comprise the SCW.