Articles | Volume 23, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-23-2903-2005
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-23-2903-2005
08 Nov 2005
 | 08 Nov 2005

Double Star, Cluster, and ground-based observations of magnetic reconnection during an interval of duskward oriented IMF: preliminary results

J. A. Wild, S. E. Milan, J. A. Davies, S. W. H. Cowley, C. M. Carr, and A. Balogh

Abstract. We present a space- and ground-based study exploiting data from the coordinated Cluster and Double Star missions in order to investigate dayside magnetic reconnection under BY+ dominated IMF conditions. In-situ observations of magnetosheath flux transfer events combined with measurements of pulsed poleward and dawnward directed flows in the pre-noon sector high-latitude northern hemisphere ionosphere are interpreted as indications of pulsed magnetic reconnection during an interval in which the IMF remained relatively steady. Observations of newly-reconnected magnetic flux tubes anchored in the northern hemisphere both at mid-latitudes and in the vicinity of the subsolar point suggests that during BY+ dominated IMF, reconnection is not, as proposed previously, limited to the high-latitude magnetopause.