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Southward-then-northward magnetic perturbations are often seen in the tail plasma sheet, along with earthward jets, but the generation mechanism of such bipolar B(z) ( magnetic flux rope created through multiple X-line reconnection, transient reconnection, or else) has been controversial. At similar to 2313 UT on 13 August 2002, Cluster encountered a bipolar B(z) at the leading edge of an earthward jet, with one of the four spacecraft in the middle of the current sheet. Application to this bipolar signature of Grad-Shafranov ( GS) reconstruction, the technique for recovery of two-dimensional ( 2D) magnetohydrostatic structures, suggests that a flux rope with diameter of similar to 2 R(E) was embedded in the jet. To investigate the validity of the GS results, the technique is applied to synthetic data from a three-dimensional ( 3D) MHD simulation, in which a bipolar B(z) can be produced through localized ( 3D) reconnection in the presence of guide field B(y) ( Shirataka et al., 2006) without invoking multiple X-lines. A flux rope-type structure, which does not in fact exist in the simulation, is reconstructed but with a shape elongated in the jet direction. Unambiguous identification of a mechanism that leads to an observed bipolar B(z) thus seems difficult based on the topological property in the GS maps. We however infer that a flux rope was responsible for the bipolar pulse in this particular Cluster event, because the recovered magnetic structure is roughly circular, suggesting a relaxed and minimum energy state. Our results also indicate that one has to be cautious about interpretation of some ( e. g., force-free, or magnetohydrostatic) model-based results.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 11206 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research |
Volume | 112 |
Issue number | A11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 10 Nov 2007 |
ID: 36758641