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www.ann-geophys.net/30/1025/2012/
doi:10.5194/angeo-30-1025-2012
© Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Spatial distribution of rolled up Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices at Earth's dayside and flank magnetopause
1Science and Robotic Exploration Directorate, ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
2Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, Sagamihara, Japan
3IRAP/CNRS, Toulouse, France
4SPRG/SSL , Berkeley, CA, United States
5RAL/STFC, Didcot, UK
6MSSL/UCL, Dorking, UK
7IWF, Graz, Austria
8UCLA/IGPP, Los Angeles, CA, USA
9ISS, Bucharest, Romania
10Imperial College, London, UK
11Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Bocni II 1401, 141 31 Prague, Czech Republic
12CSSAR, Beijing, China
13NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA
14Peking University, Beijing, China
15Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Abstract. The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) can drive waves at the magnetopause. These waves can grow to form rolled-up vortices and facilitate transfer of plasma into the magnetosphere. To investigate the persistence and frequency of such waves at the magnetopause we have carried out a survey of all Double Star 1 magnetopause crossings, using a combination of ion and magnetic field measurements. Using criteria originally used in a Geotail study made by Hasegawa et al. (2006) (forthwith referred to as H2006), 17 candidate events were identified from the entire TC-1 mission (covering ~623 orbits where the magnetopause was sampled), a majority of which were on the dayside of the terminator. The relationship between density and shear velocity was then investigated, to identify the predicted signature of a rolled up vortex from H2006 and all 17 events exhibited some level of rolled up behavior. The location of the events had a clear dawn-dusk asymmetry, with 12 (71%) on the post noon, dusk flank suggesting preferential growth in this region.
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Citation: Taylor, M. G. G. T., Hasegawa, H., Lavraud, B., Phan, T., Escoubet, C. P., Dunlop, M. W., Bogdanova, Y. V., Borg, A. L., Volwerk, M., Berchem, J., Constantinescu, O. D., Eastwood, J. P., Masson, A., Laakso, H., Soucek, J., Fazakerley, A. N., Frey, H. U., Panov, E. V., Shen, C., Shi, J. K., Sibeck, D. G., Pu, Z. Y., Wang, J., and Wild, J. A.: Spatial distribution of rolled up Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices at Earth's dayside and flank magnetopause, Ann. Geophys., 30, 1025-1035, doi:10.5194/angeo-30-1025-2012, 2012. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
