Characterization of Alfvenic fluctuations in the magnetopause boundary layer
Résumé
In the course of its magnetopause crossings at various local times, ESA's GEOS 2 spacecraft has detected intense magnetic and electric fluctuations in the 1-10 Hz ULF range. Spectral analysis and correlations are applied to both these fluctuations, as well as a minimum-variance analysis to the magnetic fluctuations, in order to ascertain the nature of these fluctuations. It is shown that the observed electric and magnetic signatures are consistent with small-scale Alfvenic field-aligned structures passing by the spacecraft at high speed. These structures are suggested to correspond to nonlinear Alfvenic structures.
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