Kinetic Equilibrium and Stability Analysis of Dipolarization Fronts

Dipolarization fronts and magnetic flux transport

Recent emphasis on dipolarization fronts (DFs) has led to the impression that DFs play a significant role in bringing magnetic flux to the inner magnetosphere during substorms. In this work, we investigate the amount of magnetic flux transport associated with DFs by examining the frozen-in field line condition (FIC) for previously reported DF events. A study of 18 DF cases shows that the FIC do...

A comparative study of dipolarization fronts at MMS and Cluster

We present a statistical study of dipolarization fronts (DFs), using magnetic field data from MMS and Cluster, at radial distances below 12 RE and 20 RE , respectively. Assuming that the DFs have a semicircular cross section and are propelled by the magnetic tension force, we used multispacecraft observations to determine the DF velocities. About three quarters of the DFs propagate earthward an...

Rapid acceleration of protons upstream of earthward propagating dipolarization fronts

[1] Transport and acceleration of ions in the magnetotail largely occurs in the form of discrete impulsive events associated with a steep increase of the tail magnetic field normal to the neutral plane (Bz ), which are referred to as dipolarization fronts. The goal of this paper is to investigate how protons initially located upstream of earthward moving fronts are accelerated at their encounte...

Two states of magnetotail dipolarization fronts: A statistical study

We study the ion density and temperature in the predipolarization and postdipolarization plasma sheets in the Earth's magnetotail using 9 years (2001-2009) of Cluster data. For our study we selected cases when Cluster observed dipolarization fronts (DFs) with an earthward plasma flow greater than 150km/s. We perform a statistical study of the temperature and density variations during the DF cro...

Linear stability analysis of convective chemical fronts