Pseudobreakup and substorm growth phase in the ionosphere and magnetosphere

Journal Article · Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/92JA02482· OSTI ID:6584261

Koskinin, H E.J.; Pellinen, R J; Pulkkinen, T I ^[1]; Lopez, R E ^[2]; Baker, D N ^[3]; Boesinger, T ^[4]

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1. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki (Finland)
2. Univ. of Maryland, College Park (United States)
3. NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
4. Univ. of Oulu (Finland)

The authors present space and ground based observations made during the growth phase and the onset of a substorm on August 31, 1986. Roughly 20 minutes after the [var epsilon] parameter at the magnetopause had exceeded 10[sup 11] W, the AMPTE Charge Composition Explorer spacecraft observed an increase in energetic particle fluxes consistent with magnetic field depolarization. The craft was close to magnetic midnight at a geocentric distance of 8.7R[sub E]. The event had the initial signature of a substorm onset, but it did not lead to a full-scale substorm expansion based on several ground based observations. There were no large particle injection events at geostationary orbit. After another 20 minutes the event did enter a normal substorm expansion phase. The authors interpret the initial activation as a [open quotes]pseudobreakup[close quotes]. They correlate observations made by spacecraft in the near-Earth plasma sheet, with ground based observations of the ionospheric development from magnetometer and electric field measurements from the STARE radar. The strength and the consequences are concluded to be the main differences of pseudobreakups and ordinary breakups.

• OSTI ID: 6584261
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 98:A4; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
MAGNETIC BAYS
IONOSPHERE
EXPANSION
DEPOLARIZATION
ELECTRIC FIELDS
INJECTION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETOPAUSE
PLASMA SHEET
RADAR
SPACE
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
INTAKE
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
RANGE FINDERS
661320* - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)