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Mapping MMS Observations of Solitary Waves in Earth's Magnetic Field
  • +12
  • Paul James Hansel,
  • FREDERICK WILDER,
  • David M. Malaspina,
  • Robert E Ergun,
  • Narges Ahmadi,
  • Justin C. Holmes,
  • Katherine Amanda Goodrich,
  • Stephen A. Fuselier,
  • Barbara L. Giles,
  • Christopher T. Russell,
  • Roy B. Torbert,
  • Robert J. Strangeway,
  • Yuri V. Khotyaintsev,
  • Per-Arne Lindqvist,
  • James L Burch
Paul James Hansel
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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FREDERICK WILDER
University of Colorado Boulder
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David M. Malaspina
University of Colorado Boulder
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Robert E Ergun
Univeristy of Colorado
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Narges Ahmadi
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder
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Justin C. Holmes
Space Research Institute
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Katherine Amanda Goodrich
University of California, Berkeley
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Stephen A. Fuselier
Southwest Research Institute
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Barbara L. Giles
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Christopher T. Russell
University of California Los Angeles
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Roy B. Torbert
University of New Hampshire
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Robert J. Strangeway
University of California Los Angeles
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Yuri V. Khotyaintsev
Swedish Institute of Space Physics
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Per-Arne Lindqvist
KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
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James L Burch
Southwest Research Institute
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Abstract

Electrostatic solitary waves (ESWs) are a type of nonlinear time-domain plasma structure (TDS) generally defined by bipolar electric fields and propagation parallel to the local magnetic field. Formation mechanisms for TDSs in the magnetosphere have been studied extensively and are associated with plasma boundary layers and the braking of bursty bulk flows (BBFs). However, the rapid timescales over which these TDSs occur (< 2 ms) make them infeasible to count by eye over large time periods. Furthermore, high-cadence data are not always available. The Solitary Wave Detector (SWD) on NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission quantifies the occurrence and amplitude of TDS throughout the constellation’s orbit; analysis of burst (65 kS/s) parallel electric field data indicates that the SWD captures appx. 60% of all bipolar TDS encountered in the tail region, enabling large-scale examination of their occurrence. Maps of TDS occurrence rates during several years of the MMS mission were generated from SWD data, showing enhanced TDS density in the tail region between 6-9 Re; enhance occurrence in or near shocks; and an unexpected enhancement in the dawn side of the tail and in the radiation belt.
Dec 2021Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 126 issue 12. 10.1029/2021JA029389