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Fear RC, Milan SE, Maggiolo R, et al. Direct observation of closed magnetic flux trapped in the high-latitude magnetosphere. Science. 2014;346(6216):1506-10doi: 10.1126/science.1257377.
Fear, R. C., Milan, S. E., Maggiolo, R., Fazakerley, A. N., Dandouras, I., & Mende, S. B. (2014). Direct observation of closed magnetic flux trapped in the high-latitude magnetosphere. Science (New York, N.Y.), 346(6216), 1506-10. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1257377
Fear, R C, et al. "Direct observation of closed magnetic flux trapped in the high-latitude magnetosphere." Science (New York, N.Y.) vol. 346,6216 (2014): 1506-10. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1257377
Fear RC, Milan SE, Maggiolo R, Fazakerley AN, Dandouras I, Mende SB. Direct observation of closed magnetic flux trapped in the high-latitude magnetosphere. Science. 2014 Dec 19;346(6216):1506-10. doi: 10.1126/science.1257377. PMID: 25525244.
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Science. 2014 Dec 19;346(6216):1506-10. doi: 10.1126/science.1257377.

Direct observation of closed magnetic flux trapped in the high-latitude magnetosphere.

Science (New York, N.Y.)

R C Fear, S E Milan, R Maggiolo, A N Fazakerley, I Dandouras, S B Mende

Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. [email protected].
  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. Birkeland Centre for Space Sciences, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
  3. Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium.
  4. Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Dorking, UK.
  5. Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), UMR 5277, Université Paul Sabatier-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France. IRAP, CNRS, Toulouse, France.
  6. Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

PMID: 25525244 DOI: 10.1126/science.1257377

Abstract

The structure of Earth's magnetosphere is poorly understood when the interplanetary magnetic field is northward. Under this condition, uncharacteristically energetic plasma is observed in the magnetotail lobes, which is not expected in the textbook model of the magnetosphere. Using satellite observations, we show that these lobe plasma signatures occur on high-latitude magnetic field lines that have been closed by the fundamental plasma process of magnetic reconnection. Previously, it has been suggested that closed flux can become trapped in the lobe and that this plasma-trapping process could explain another poorly understood phenomenon: the presence of auroras at extremely high latitudes, called transpolar arcs. Observations of the aurora at the same time as the lobe plasma signatures reveal the presence of a transpolar arc. The excellent correspondence between the transpolar arc and the trapped closed flux at high altitudes provides very strong evidence of the trapping mechanism as the cause of transpolar arcs.

Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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