We investigate an unusual sharp boundary separating two plasma populations (inner magnetospheric plasma with high fluxes of energetic particles and plasma sheet) observed by the Cluster quartet near its perigee on 16 December 2003. Cluster was in a pearl-on-string configuration at 05:00 MLT and mapped along magnetic field lines to similar to 8-9 R(E) in the equatorial plane. It was conjugate to the MIRACLE network and the DMSP F16 spacecraft passed close to Cluster footpoint. The properties of the sharp boundary, repeatedly crossed 7 times by five spacecraft during similar to 10 min, are: (1) upward FAC sheet at the boundary with similar to 30 nA/m(2) current density at Cluster and similar to 2000 nA/m(2) at DMSP; (2) the boundary had an embedded layered structure with different thickness scales, the electron population transition was at similar to 20 km scale at Cluster (

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2771-2780
Number of pages10
JournalAnnales Geophysicae
Volume26
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008

    Research areas

  • magnetospheric physics, current systems, energetic particles, trapped, magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers, PLASMA SHEET, CURRENT SYSTEMS, FIELD

ID: 36758090