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Article Dans Une Revue Geophysical Research Letters Année : 2005

Drifting field-aligned density structures in the night-side polar cap.

Résumé

Spatio-temporal properties of density irregularities in the night-side polar cap are inferred from multi-point observations of auroral hiss at a radial distance of 5 Earth radii. In this case study, we use high resolution data of the wave instruments onboard the four Cluster spacecraft to estimate the local plasma density, obtaining values close to 1 cm3 with density depletions decreasing down to 0.15 cm3. Combined analysis in different points in space conclusively shows for the first time that these density structures are field-aligned and that they predominantly drift in the anti-sunward direction at speeds of a few km/s. This corresponds to a dawn-to-dusk convection electric field of approximately 1 mV/m. The transverse dimension of the observed density depletions, mapped down to the ionospheric heights, is of the order of a few tens of km. Their lifetime is probably longer than tens of seconds.
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Dates et versions

hal-00153198 , version 1 (27-01-2016)

Identifiants

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O. Santolik, A.M. Persoon, D.A. Gurnett, Pierrette Décréau, J.S. Pickett, et al.. Drifting field-aligned density structures in the night-side polar cap.. Geophysical Research Letters, 2005, 32 (6), pp.L06106. ⟨10.1029/2004GL021696⟩. ⟨hal-00153198⟩
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