A detailed statistical study of the magnetic structure of the dayside polar cusps is presented, based on multi-year sets of magnetometer data of Polar and Cluster spacecraft, taken in 1996-2006 and 2001-2007, respectively. Thanks to the dense data coverage in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the analysis spanned nearly the entire length of the cusps, from low altitudes to the cusp "throat" and the magnetosheath. Subsets of data falling inside the polar cusp "funnels" were selected with the help of TS05 and IGRF magnetic field models, taking into account the dipole tilt and the solar wind/IMF conditions. The selection funnels were shifted within +/- 10 degrees of SM latitude around the model cusp location, and linear regression parameters were calculated for each sliding subset, further divided into 10 bins of distance in the range 2

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1573-1582
Number of pages10
JournalAnnales Geophysicae
Volume27
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

    Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

    Research areas

  • Magnetospheric physics, Current systems, Magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers, Magnetospheric configuration and dynamics, MAGNETOPAUSE, MAGNETOSHEATH, DEPENDENCE, LOCATION, PERTURBATIONS, DAYSIDE, MODEL, NOON, IMF

ID: 28046851