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Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme

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EP: Fachverband Extraterrestrische Physik

EP 7: Solar-Terrestrische Beziehungen

EP 7.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 16:45–17:00, H46

Cluster observations of energy conversion in the plasma sheet — •Octav Marghitu1,2, Maria Hamrin3, Berndt Klecker1, and Kjell Rönnmark31Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany — 2Institute for Space Sciences, Bucharest, Romania — 3Physics Department, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

The Cluster mission provides, for the first time, a platform for the
in-situ investigation of energy conversion in key magnetospheric regions. Cluster data can be used to infer the electric field and current density vectors, E, J, and further to evaluate the power density, E·J. When E·J<0 the plasma behaves as a generator, and mechanical energy is converted into electromagnetic energy. When E·J>0 the plasma behaves as a load and the conversion sense is reversed. We present preliminary results of a search for energy conversion events, using plasma sheet Cluster data from the summer and fall of 2001. As expected, the North–South spacecraft crossings, at about 18RE, show most of the time a large scale load character. Concentrated loads with high power densities can be located around the neutral sheet, in particular close to midnight. Both concentrated load and generator regions, with low to moderate power densities, are observed in the plasma sheet boundary layer. Energy conversion appears to be always associated with the intensification of the bulk plasma flow, and sometimes with temperature anisotropy.

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