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Ion dynamics associated with substorm dipolarization fronts

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Abstract

We report where and how ions are accelerated in the proximity of earthward propagating dipolarization fronts (DFs) in the magnetotail during a magnetospheric substorm on February 15, 2008. Two DFs were observed by multiple THEMIS spacecraft in the near-Earth magnetotail (∼−10 Re). We studied the ion dynamics associated with these DFs by comparing observed results with large scale kinetic (LSK) simulation results. The LSK simulation reproduced the sudden ion energy flux enhancement concurrent with the arrival of the DF at the satellite locations. We found that ions can be accelerated to more than 100 keV energy at the DF. These ions were initially non-adiabatically accelerated near magnetic reconnection site and then still non-adiabatically accelerated at the DF structure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic and Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Song Fu & ZhiGang Yuan

  2. Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Song Fu, Maha Ashour-Abdalla, Mostafa El-Alaoui, Robert L. Richard & Raymond J. Walker

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Maha Ashour-Abdalla

  4. Institute of Space Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    XiaoHua Deng & Meng Zhou

  5. Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Raymond J. Walker

  6. National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia, 22230, USA

    Raymond J. Walker

Authors
  1. Song Fu
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  2. Maha Ashour-Abdalla
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  3. XiaoHua Deng
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  4. Mostafa El-Alaoui
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  5. Meng Zhou
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  6. Robert L. Richard
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  7. Raymond J. Walker
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  8. ZhiGang Yuan
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Correspondence to Song Fu.

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Fu, S., Ashour-Abdalla, M., Deng, X. et al. Ion dynamics associated with substorm dipolarization fronts. Sci. China Earth Sci. 57, 2543–2551 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-4915-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-4915-3

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