The paper analyses one long-term pass (26 August 2007) of the THEMIS spacecraft across the dayside low-latitude magnetopause. THEMIS B, serving partly as a magnetosheath monitor, observed several changes of the magnetic field that were accompanied by dynamic changes of the magnetopause location and/or the structure of magnetopause layers observed by THEMIS C, D, and E, whereas THEMIS A scanned ...

We present case and statistical studies of flux transfer events (FTEs) observed by Interball-1 on the highlatitude magnetopause. The case studies provide observations of FTEs in the cusp during periods of southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientation and on the magnetopause poleward of the cusp during periods of strongly northward IMF orientation. We interpret the former in terms of...

Cluster magnetic field data are studied during an outbound pass through the post-noon high-latitude magnetopause region on 14 February 2001. The onset of several minute perturbations in the magnetospheric field was observed in conjunction with a southward turn of the interplanetary magnetic field observed upstream by the ACE spacecraft and lagged to the subsolar magnetopause. These perturbation...

The Earth’s magnetosheath, the transition region between the Earth’s magnetopause and the bow shock, is a space laboratory for the investigation of magnetoactive plasmas. Analogeous studies are also the aim of the LAPLAS experiment planned for the FAIR facility at GSI [1]. One of the recent problems of the magnetosheath physics is the dependence of its plasma depletion layer on the direction of...

[1] We report on detailed observations by the four Cluster spacecraft of magnetic reconnection and a Flux Transfer Event (FTE) at the magnetopause. We detect cold (eV) plasma at the magnetopause with two independent methods. We show that the cold ions can be essential for the electric field normal to the current sheet in the separatrix region at the edge of the FTE and for the associated accele...

[1] The present empirical models describing a location and shape of the magnetopause and bow shock are based on a statistical evaluation of magnetopause and bow shock crossings. The crossings are usually identified by a visual inspection of the plots or by automatic methods which are less reliable. We present a new method of determination of the most probable boundary locations. The method is b...

Using hybrid simulations, we examine how particles can diffuse across the Earth’s magnetopause because of finite Larmor radius effects. We focus on tangential discontinuities and consider a reversal of the magnetic field that closely models the magnetopause under southward interplanetary magnetic field. When the Larmor radius is on the order of the field reversal thickness, we show that particl...

An event of strong flux pile-up and plasma depletion at the high latitude magnetopause tailward of the cusp has been analyzed based on observations by the suite of Cluster spacecraft. The multi-satellite analysis facilitates the separation of temporal and spatial features and provides a direct estimate for the strength of the plasma depletion layer for this event. A doubling of the magnetic fie...