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  • Journal article
    Liu TZ, Hietala H, Angelopoulos V, Vainio R, Omelchenko Yet al., 2020,

    Electron acceleration by magnetosheath jet‐driven bow waves

    , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol: 125, Pages: 1-13, ISSN: 2169-9380

    Magnetosheath jets are localized fast flows with enhanced dynamic pressure. When they supermagnetosonically compress the ambient magnetosheath plasma, a bow wave or shock can form ahead of them. Such a bow wave was recently observed to accelerate ions and possibly electrons. The ion acceleration process was previously analyzed, but the electron acceleration process remains largely unexplored. Here we use multi‐point observations by Time History of Events and Macroscale during Substorms from three events to determine whether and how magnetosheath jet‐driven bow waves can accelerate electrons. We show that when suprathermal electrons in the ambient magnetosheath convect towards a bow wave, some electrons are shock‐drift accelerated and reflected towards the ambient magnetosheath and others continue moving downstream of the bow wave resulting in bi‐directional motion. Our study indicates that magnetosheath jet‐driven bow waves can result in additional energization of suprathermal electrons in the magnetosheath. It implies that magnetosheath jets can increase the efficiency of electron acceleration at planetary bow shocks or other similar astrophysical environments.

  • Journal article
    Liu TZ, Hietala H, Angelopoulos V, Omelchenko Y, Vainio R, Plaschke Fet al., 2020,

    Statistical study of magnetosheath jet‐driven bow waves

    , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol: 125, Pages: 1-14, ISSN: 2169-9380

    When a magnetosheath jet (localized dynamic pressure enhancements) compresses ambient magnetosheath at a (relative) speed faster than the local magnetosonic speed, a bow wave or shock can form ahead of the jet. Such bow waves or shocks were recently observed to accelerate particles, thus contributing to magnetosheath heating and particle acceleration in the extended environment of Earth’s bow shock. To further understand the characteristics of jet‐driven bow waves, we perform a statistical study to examine which solar wind conditions favor their formation and whether it is common for them to accelerate particles. We identified 364 out of 2859 (~13%) magnetosheath jets to have a bow wave or shock ahead of them with Mach number typically larger than 1.1. We show that large solar wind plasma beta, weak interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) strength, large solar wind Alfvén Mach number, and strong solar wind dynamic pressure present favorable conditions for their formation. We also show that magnetosheath jets with bow waves or shocks are more frequently associated with higher maximum ion and electron energies than those without them, confirming that it is common for these structures to accelerate particles. In particular, magnetosheath jets with bow waves have electron energy flux enhanced on average by a factor of 2 compared to both those without bow waves and the ambient magnetosheath. Our study implies that magnetosheath jets can contribute to shock acceleration of particles especially for high Mach number shocks. Therefore, shock models should be generalized to include magnetosheath jets and concomitant particle acceleration.

  • Journal article
    Bowen TA, Mallet A, Bale SD, Bonnell JW, Case AW, Chandran BDG, Chasapis A, Chen CHK, Duan D, de Wit TD, Goetz K, Halekas JS, Harvey PR, Kasper JC, Korreck KE, Larson D, Livi R, MacDowall RJ, Malaspina DM, McManus MD, Pulupa M, Stevens M, Whittlesey Pet al., 2020,

    Constraining Ion-Scale Heating and Spectral Energy Transfer in Observations of Plasma Turbulence

    , PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, Vol: 125, ISSN: 0031-9007
  • Journal article
    Cao H, Dougherty MK, Hunt GJ, Provan G, Cowley SWH, Bunce EJ, Kellock S, Stevenson DJet al., 2020,

    The landscape of Saturn's internal magnetic field from the Cassini Grand Finale

    , ICARUS, Vol: 344, ISSN: 0019-1035
  • Journal article
    Diaz-Aguado MF, Bonnell JW, Bale SD, Christensen J, Lundgreen P, Lee J, Dennison JR, Wood B, Gruntman Met al., 2020,

    Experimental Investigation of the Secondary and Backscatter Electron Emission from Spacecraft Materials

    , JOURNAL OF SPACECRAFT AND ROCKETS, Vol: 57, Pages: 793-808, ISSN: 0022-4650
  • Journal article
    Martin CJ, Ray LC, Constable DA, Southwood DJ, Lorch CTS, Felici Met al., 2020,

    Evaluating the ionospheric mass source for Jupiter's magnetosphere: An ionospheric outflow model for the auroral regions

    , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol: 125, ISSN: 2169-9380

    Ionospheric outflow is the flow of plasma initiated by a loss of equilibrium along a magnetic field line which induces an ambipolar electric field due to the separation of electrons and ions in a gravitational field and other mass dependant sources. We have developed an ionospheric outflow model using the transport equations to determine the number of particles that flow into the outer magnetosphere of Jupiter. The model ranges from 1400 km in altitude above the 1 bar level to 2.5 RJ along the magnetic field line and considers H+ and H3+ as the main ion constituents. Previously, only pressure gradients and gravitational forces were considered in modelling polar wind. However, at Jupiter we need to evaluate the affect of field‐aligned currents present in the auroral regions due to the breakdown of corotation in the magnetosphere, along with the centrifugal force exerted on the particles due to the fast planetary rotation rate. The total number flux from both hemispheres is found to be 1.3‐1.8 x 1028 s‐1 comparable in total number flux to the Io plasma source. The mass flux is lower due to the difference in ion species. This influx of protons from the ionosphere into the inner and middle magnetosphere needs to be included in future assessments of global flux tube dynamics and composition of the magnetosphere system.

  • Journal article
    Oliveros JCM, Diaz Castillo SM, Krupar V, Pulupa M, Bale SD, Calvo-Mozo Bet al., 2020,

    An In Situ Interplanetary "U-burst": Observation and Results

    , ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, Vol: 897, ISSN: 0004-637X
  • Journal article
    Starkey M, Fuselier SA, Desai MI, Schwartz SJ, Gomez RG, Mukherjee J, Cohen IJ, Russell CTet al., 2020,

    MMS Observations of Accelerated Interstellar Pickup He<SUP>+</SUP>Ions at an Interplanetary Shock

    , ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, Vol: 897, ISSN: 0004-637X
  • Journal article
    Huang SY, Zhang J, Sahraoui F, He JS, Yuan ZG, Andres N, Hadid LZ, Deng XH, Jiang K, Yu L, Xiong QY, Wei YY, Xu SB, Bale SD, Kasper JCet al., 2020,

    Kinetic Scale Slow Solar Wind Turbulence in the Inner Heliosphere: Coexistence of Kinetic Alfven Waves and Alfven Ion Cyclotron Waves

    , ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS, Vol: 897, ISSN: 2041-8205
  • Journal article
    Oleynik P, Vainio R, Punkkinen A, Dudnik O, Gieseler J, Hedman H-P, Hietala H, Hæggström E, Niemelä P, Peltonen J, Praks J, Punkkinen R, Säntti T, Valtonen Eet al., 2020,

    Calibration of RADMON radiation monitor onboard Aalto-1 CubeSat

    , Advances in Space Research, Vol: 66, Pages: 42-51, ISSN: 0273-1177
  • Journal article
    Gieseler J, Oleynik P, Hietala H, Vainio R, Hedman H-P, Peltonen J, Punkkinen A, Punkkinen R, Säntti T, Hæggström E, Praks J, Niemelä P, Riwanto B, Jovanovic N, Mughal MRet al., 2020,

    Radiation monitor RADMON aboard Aalto-1 CubeSat: First results

    , Advances in Space Research, Vol: 66, Pages: 52-65, ISSN: 0273-1177
  • Journal article
    Magurno D, Cossich W, Maestri T, Bantges R, Brindley H, Fox S, Harlow C, Murray J, Pickering J, Warwick L, Oetjen Het al., 2020,

    Cirrus cloud identification from airborne far-infrared and mid-infrared spectra

    , Remote Sensing, Vol: 12, Pages: 1-19, ISSN: 2072-4292

    Airborne interferometric data, obtained from the Cirrus Coupled Cloud-Radiation Experiment (CIRCCREX) and from the PiknMix-F field campaign, are used to test the ability of a machine learning cloud identification and classification algorithm (CIC). Data comprise a set of spectral radiances measured by the Tropospheric Airborne Fourier Transform Spectrometer (TAFTS) and the Airborne Research Interferometer Evaluation System (ARIES). Co-located measurements of the two sensors allow observations of the upwelling radiance for clear and cloudy conditions across the far- and mid-infrared part of the spectrum. Theoretical sensitivity studies show that the performance of the CIC algorithm improves with cloud altitude. These tests also suggest that, for conditions encompassing those sampled by the flight campaigns, the additional information contained within the far-infrared improves the algorithm’s performance compared to using mid-infrared data only. When the CIC is applied to the airborne radiance measurements, the classification performance of the algorithm is very high. However, in this case, the limited temporal and spatial variability in the measured spectra results in a less obvious advantage being apparent when using both mid- and far-infrared radiances compared to using mid-infrared information only. These results suggest that the CIC algorithm will be a useful addition to existing cloud classification tools but that further analyses of nadir radiance observations spanning the infrared and sampling a wider range of atmospheric and cloud conditions are required to fully probe its capabilities. This will be realised with the launch of the Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM) mission, ESA’s 9th Earth Explorer.

  • Journal article
    Kollmann, Cohen, Allen, Clark, Roussos, Vines, Dietrich, Wicht, de Pater, Runyon, Cartwright, Masters A, Brain, Hibbits, Mauk, Gkioulidou, Rymer, McNutt, Hue, Stanley, Brandtet al., 2020,

    Magnetospheric studies: a requirement for addressing interdisciplinary mysteries in the Ice Giant systems

    , Space Science Reviews, Vol: 216, ISSN: 0038-6308

    Uranus and Neptune are the least-explored planets in our Solar System. This paper summarizesmysteries about these incredibly intriguing planets and their environments spurred by our limitedobservations from Voyager 2 and Earth-based systems. Several of these observations are eitherinconsistent with our current understanding built from exploring other planetary systems, orindicate such unique characteristics of these Ice Giants that they leave us with more questions thananswers. This paper specifically focuses on the value of all aspects of magnetosphericmeasurements, from the radiation belt structure to plasma dynamics to coupling to the solar wind,through a future mission to either of these planets. Such measurements have large interdisciplinaryvalue, as demonstrated by the large number of mysteries discussed in this paper that cover othernon-magnetospheric disciplines, including planetary interiors, atmospheres, rings, and moons.

  • Journal article
    Wang S, Rashid T, Thorp H, Toumi Ret al., 2020,

    A shortening of the life-cycle of major tropical cyclones

    , Geophysical Research Letters, Vol: 47, Pages: 28 Jul 2020-28 Jul 2020, ISSN: 0094-8276

    In this study a comprehensive picture of the changing intensity life cycle of major (Category 3 and higher) tropical cyclones (TCs) is presented. Over the past decades, the lifetime maximum intensity has increased, but there has also been a significant decrease in duration of time spent at intensities greater than Category 1. These compensating effects have maintained a stable global mean‐accumulated cyclone energy of individual major TCs. The global mean duration of major TCs has shortened by about 1 day from 1982 to 2018. There has been both faster intensification (Categories 1 to 3) and weakening (Categories 3 to 1) by about 40%. The probabilities of rapid intensification and rapid weakening have both risen in the period 2000–2018 compared to 1982–1999. A statistically significant anticorrelation is found between the lifetime maximum intensity and the following duration of the final weakening. This suggests an element of self‐regulation of TC life cycles.

  • Journal article
    Archer MO, 2020,

    Space Sound Effects Short Film Festival: using the film festival model to inspire creative art–science and reach new audiences

    , Geoscience Communication, Vol: 3, Pages: 147-166, ISSN: 2569-7110

    The ultra-low frequency analogues of sound waves in Earth'smagnetosphere play a crucial role in space weather; however, the publicis largely unaware of this risk to our everyday lives and technology.As a way of potentially reaching new audiences, SSFX (Space Sound Effects) made 8 yearsof satellite wave recordings audible to the human ear with the aimof using it to create art. Partnering with film industry professionals,the standard processes of international film festivals were adoptedby the project in order to challenge independent filmmakers to incorporatethese sounds into short films in creative ways. Seven films coveringa wide array of topics and genres (despite coming from the same sounds)were selected for screening at a special film festival out of 22 submissions.The works have subsequently been shown at numerous established filmfestivals and screenings internationally. These events have attracteddiverse non-science audiences resulting in several unanticipated impacts on them, thereby demonstrating how working with the art world canopen up dialogues with both artists and audiences who would not ordinarily engage with science.

  • Journal article
    Madanian H, Schwartz SJ, Halekas JS, Wilson LBet al., 2020,

    Nonstationary Quasiperpendicular Shock and Ion Reflection at Mars

    , GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, Vol: 47, ISSN: 0094-8276
  • Journal article
    Vasko IY, Wang R, Mozer FS, Bale SD, Artemyev AVet al., 2020,

    On the Nature and Origin of Bipolar Electrostatic Structures in the Earth's Bow Shock

    , FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS, Vol: 8, ISSN: 2296-424X
  • Journal article
    Bandyopadhyay R, Sorriso-Valvo L, Chasapis A, Hellinger P, Matthaeus WH, Verdini A, Landi S, Franci L, Matteini L, Giles BL, Gershman DJ, Moore TE, Pollock CJ, Russell CT, Strangeway RJ, Torbert RB, Burch JLet al., 2020,

    In situ observation of hall magnetohydrodynamic cascade in space plasma

    , Physical Review Letters, Vol: 124, Pages: 225101 – 1-225101 – 7, ISSN: 0031-9007

    We present estimates of the turbulent energy-cascade rate derived from a Hall-magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) third-order law. We compute the contribution from the Hall term and the MHD term to the energy flux. Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) data accumulated in the magnetosheath and the solar wind are compared with previously established simulation results. Consistent with the simulations, we find that at large (MHD) scales, the MMS observations exhibit a clear inertial range dominated by the MHD flux. In the subion range, the cascade continues at a diminished level via the Hall term, and the change becomes more pronounced as the plasma beta increases. Additionally, the MHD contribution to interscale energy transfer remains important at smaller scales than previously thought. Possible reasons are offered for this unanticipated result.

  • Journal article
    Carnielli G, Galand M, Leblanc F, Modolo R, Beth A, Jia Xet al., 2020,

    Constraining Ganymede's neutral and plasma environments through simulations of its ionosphere and Galileo observations

    , Icarus, Vol: 343, Pages: 1-11, ISSN: 0019-1035

    Ganymede's neutral and plasma environments are poorly constrained by observations. Carnielli et al. (2019) developed the first 3D ionospheric model aimed at understanding the dynamics of the present ion species and at quantifying the presence of each component in the moon's magnetosphere. The model outputs were compared with Galileo measurements of the ion energy flux, ion bulk velocity and electron number density made during the G2 flyby. A good agreement was found in terms of ion energy distribution and bulk velocity, but not in terms of electron number density. In this work, we present some improvements to our model Carnielli et al. (2019) and quantitatively address the possible sources of the discrepancy found in the electron number density between the Galileo observations and our ionospheric model. We have improved the ion model by developing a collision scheme to simulate the charge-exchange interaction between the exosphere and the ionosphere. We have simulated the energetic component of the O$_2$ population, which is missing in the exospheric model of Leblanc et al. (2017) and added it to the original distribution, hence improving its description at high altitudes. These improvements are found to be insufficient to explain the discrepancy in the electron number density. We provide arguments that the input O$_2$ exosphere is underestimated and that the plasma production acts asymmetrically between the Jovian and anti-Jovian hemispheres. In particular, we estimate that the O$_2$ column density should be greater than $10^{15}$~cm$^{-2}$, i.e., higher than previously derived upper limits (and a factor 10 higher than the values from Leblanc et al. (2017)), and that the ionization frequency from electron impact must be higher in the anti-Jovian hemisphere for the G2 flyby conditions.

  • Journal article
    Yang L, Wang L, Zhao L, Tao J, Li G, Wimmer-Schweingruber RF, He J, Tian H, Bale SDet al., 2020,

    Quiet-time Solar Wind Suprathermal Electrons of Different Solar Origins

    , ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS, Vol: 896, ISSN: 2041-8205
  • Journal article
    Dimmock AP, Hietala H, Zou Y, 2020,

    Compiling magnetosheath statistical data sets under specific solar wind conditions: lessons learnt from the dayside kinetic southward IMF GEM challenge

    , Earth and Space Science, Vol: 7, Pages: 1-13, ISSN: 2333-5084

    The Geospace Environmental Modelling (GEM) community offers a framework for collaborations between modelers, observers, and theoreticians in the form of regular challenges. In many cases, these challenges involve model‐data comparisons to provide wider context to observations or validate model results. To perform meaningful comparisons, a statistical approach is often adopted, which requires the extraction of a large number of measurements from a specific region. However, in complex regions such as the magnetosheath, compiling these data can be difficult. Here, we provide the statistical context of compiling statistical data for the southward IMF GEM challenge initiated by the “Dayside Kinetic Processes in Global Solar Wind‐Magnetosphere Interaction” focus group. It is shown that matching very specific upstream conditions can severely impact the statistical data if limits are imposed on several solar wind parameters. We suggest that future studies that wish to compare simulations and/or single events to statistical data should carefully consider at an early stage the availability of data in context with the upstream criteria. We also demonstrate the importance of how specific IMF conditions are defined, the chosen spacecraft, the region of interest, and how regions are identified automatically. The lessons learnt in this study are of wide context to many future studies as well as GEM challenges. The results also highlight the issue where a global statistical perspective has to be balanced with its relevance to more‐extreme, less‐frequent individual events, which is typically the case in the field of space weather.

  • Journal article
    Curtis PE, Ceppi P, Zappa G, 2020,

    Role of the mean state for the Southern Hemispheric Jet Stream response to CO₂ forcing in CMIP6 models

    , Environmental Research Letters, Vol: 15, Pages: 1-7, ISSN: 1748-9326

    Global climate models indicate that the Southern Hemispheric (SH) jet stream shifts poleward in response to CO2 forcing, but the magnitude of this shift remains highly uncertain. Here we analyse the SH jet stream response to 4×CO2 forcing in Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) simulations, and find a substantially muted jet shift during winter compared with CMIP5. We suggest this muted response results from a more poleward mean jet position, consistent with a strongly reduced bias in jet position relative to the reanalysis during 1980--2004. The improved mean jet position cannot be explained by changes in the simulated sea surface temperatures. Instead, we find indications that increased horizontal grid resolution in CMIP6 relative to CMIP5 has contributed to the higher mean jet latitude, and thus to the reduced jet shift under CO2 forcing. These results imply that CMIP6 models can provide more realistic projections of SH climate change.

  • Journal article
    Tilquin H, Eastwood JP, Phan TD, 2020,

    Solar wind reconnection exhausts in the inner heliosphere observed by helios and detected via machine learning

    , The Astrophysical Journal: an international review of astronomy and astronomical physics, Vol: 895, Pages: 1-10, ISSN: 0004-637X

    Reconnecting current sheets in the solar wind play an important role in the dynamics of the heliosphere and offer an opportunity to study magnetic reconnection exhausts under a wide variety of inflow and magnetic shear conditions. However, progress in understanding reconnection can be frustrated by the difficulty of finding events in long time-series data. Here we describe a new method to detect magnetic reconnection events in the solar wind based on machine learning, and apply it to Helios data in the inner heliosphere. The method searches for known solar wind reconnection exhaust features, and parameters in the algorithm are optimized to maximize the Matthews Correlation Coefficient using a training set of events and non-events. Applied to the whole Helios data set, the trained algorithm generated a candidate set of events that were subsequently verified by hand, resulting in a database of 88 events. This approach offers a significant reduction in construction time for event databases compared to purely manual approaches. The database contains events covering a range of heliospheric distances from ~0.3 to ~1 au, and a wide variety of magnetic shear angles, but is limited by the relatively coarse time resolution of the Helios data. Analysis of these events suggests that proton heating by reconnection in the inner heliosphere depends on the available magnetic energy in a manner consistent with observations in other regimes such as at the Earth's magnetopause, suggesting this may be a universal feature of reconnection.

  • Journal article
    Madanian H, Schwartz SJ, Halekas JS, Wilson LBet al., 2020,

    Nonstationary Quasi-perpendicular Shock and Ion Reflection at Mars

  • Journal article
    Lester JG, Lovenduski NS, Graven HD, Long MC, Lindsay Ket al., 2020,

    Internal variability dominates over externally forced ocean circulation changes seen through CFCs

    , Geophysical Research Letters, Vol: 47, Pages: 1-10, ISSN: 0094-8276

    Observations of oceanic transient tracers have indicated that the circulation in the Southern Ocean has changed in recent decades, potentially driven by changes in external climate forcing. Here, we use the CESM Large Ensemble to analyze changes in two oceanic tracers that are affected by ocean circulation: the partial pressure of chlorofluorocarbon‐12 (pCFC12) and the idealized model tracer Ideal Age (IAGE) over the 1991 to 2005 period. The small ensemble mean change in IAGE suggests that there has been very little externally forced change in Southern Ocean circulation over this period, in contrast to strong internal variability. Further, our analysis implies that real‐world observations of changes in pCFC12 may not be a robust way to characterize externally driven changes in Southern Ocean circulation because of the large internal variability in pCFC12 changes exhibited by the individual ensemble members.

  • Journal article
    Shebanits O, Hadid LZ, Cao H, Morooka MW, Hunt G, Dougherty MK, Wahlund J-E, Waite Jr JH, Mueller-Wodarg Iet al., 2020,

    Saturn’s near-equatorial ionospheric conductivities from in situ measurements

    , Scientific Reports, Vol: 10, ISSN: 2045-2322

    Cassini’s Grand Finale orbits provided for the first time in-situ measurements of Saturn’s topside ionosphere. We present the Pedersen and Hall conductivities of the top near-equatorial dayside ionosphere, derived from the in-situ measurements by the Cassini Radio and Wave Plasma Science Langmuir Probe, the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer and the fluxgate magnetometer. The Pedersen and Hall conductivities are constrained to at least 10−5–10−4 S/m at (or close to) the ionospheric peak, a factor 10–100 higher than estimated previously. We show that this is due to the presence of dusty plasma in the near-equatorial ionosphere. We also show the conductive ionospheric region to be extensive, with thickness of 300–800 km. Furthermore, our results suggest a temporal variation (decrease) of the plasma densities, mean ion masses and consequently the conductivities from orbit 288 to 292.

  • Journal article
    Lavraud B, Fargette N, Réville V, Szabo A, Huang J, Rouillard AP, Viall N, Phan TD, Kasper JC, Bale SD, Berthomier M, Bonnell JW, Case AW, Dudok de Wit T, Eastwood JP, Génot V, Goetz K, Griton LS, Halekas JS, Harvey P, Kieokaew R, Klein KG, Korreck KE, Kouloumvakos A, Larson DE, Lavarra M, Livi R, Louarn P, MacDowall RJ, Maksimovic M, Malaspina D, Nieves-Chinchilla T, Pinto RF, Poirier N, Pulupa M, Raouafi NE, Stevens ML, Toledo-Redondo S, Whittlesey PLet al., 2020,

    The heliospheric current sheet and plasma sheet during Parker Solar Probe’s first orbit

    , Letters of the Astrophysical Journal, Vol: 894, Pages: 1-8, ISSN: 2041-8205

    We present heliospheric current sheet (HCS) and plasma sheet (HPS) observations during Parker Solar Probe's (PSP) first orbit around the Sun. We focus on the eight intervals that display a true sector boundary (TSB; based on suprathermal electron pitch angle distributions) with one or several associated current sheets. The analysis shows that (1) the main density enhancements in the vicinity of the TSB and HCS are typically associated with electron strahl dropouts, implying magnetic disconnection from the Sun, (2) the density enhancements are just about twice that in the surrounding regions, suggesting mixing of plasmas from each side of the HCS, (3) the velocity changes at the main boundaries are either correlated or anticorrelated with magnetic field changes, consistent with magnetic reconnection, (4) there often exists a layer of disconnected magnetic field just outside the high-density regions, in agreement with a reconnected topology, (5) while a few cases consist of short-lived density and velocity changes, compatible with short-duration reconnection exhausts, most events are much longer and show the presence of flux ropes interleaved with higher-β regions. These findings are consistent with the transient release of density blobs and flux ropes through sequential magnetic reconnection at the tip of the helmet streamer. The data also demonstrate that, at least during PSP's first orbit, the only structure that may be defined as the HPS is the density structure that results from magnetic reconnection, and its byproducts, likely released near the tip of the helmet streamer.

  • Journal article
    Ala-Lahti M, Ruohotie J, Good SW, Kilpua E, Lugaz Net al., 2020,

    Spatial coherence of interplanetary coronal mass ejection sheaths at 1 AU

  • Journal article
    Hunt GJ, Bunce EJ, Cao H, Cowley SWH, Dougherty MK, Provan G, Southwood DJet al., 2020,

    Saturn's auroral field-aligned currents: observations from the Northern Hemisphere dawn sector during cassini's proximal orbits

    , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol: 125, ISSN: 2169-9380

    We examine the azimuthal magnetic field signatures associated with Saturn's northern hemisphere auroral field‐aligned currents observed in the dawn sector during Cassini's Proximal orbits (April 2017 and September 2017). We compare these currents with observations of the auroral currents from near noon taken during the F‐ring orbits prior to the Proximal orbits. First, we show that the position of the main auroral upward current is displaced poleward between the two local times (LT). This is consistent with the statistical position of the ultraviolet auroral oval for the same time interval. Second, we show the overall average ionospheric meridional current profile differs significantly on the equatorward boundary of the upward current with a swept‐forward configuration with respect to planetary rotation present at dawn. We separate the planetary period oscillation (PPO) currents from the PPO‐independent currents and show their positional relationship is maintained as the latitude of the current shifts in LT implying an intrinsic link between the two systems. Focusing on the individual upward current sheets pass‐by‐pass we find that the main upward current at dawn is stronger compared to near‐noon. This results in the current density been ~1.4 times higher in the dawn sector. We determine a proxy for the precipitating electron power and show that the dawn PPO‐independent upward current electron power ~1.9 times higher than at noon. These new observations of the dawn auroral region from the Proximal orbits may show evidence of an additional upward current at dawn likely associated with strong flows in the outer magnetosphere.

  • Journal article
    Fuselier, Petrinec, Sawyer, Mukherjee, Masters Aet al., 2020,

    Suppression of magnetic reconnection at Saturn’s low-latitude magnetopause

    , Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol: 125, Pages: 1-16, ISSN: 2169-9380

    Observations from the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer/Electron Spectrometer (CAPS/ELS) are used in an in‐depth investigation of the occurrence and location of reconnection at Saturn's magnetopause. Heated, streaming electrons parallel and/or antiparallel to the magnetic field in the magnetosheath adjacent to the magnetopause indicate that reconnection is occurring somewhere on the boundary. In these instances, the Cassini spacecraft is connected to open magnetic field lines that thread the magnetopause boundary. A survey of 99 crossings with sufficient pitch angle coverage from CAPS/ELS indicates that 65% of the crossings had this evidence of reconnection. Specific crossings from this survey are used to demonstrate that there are times when reconnection at Saturn's low‐latitude magnetopause may be suppressed.

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