ALBERT

Description: The Toulouse electron spectrometer flown on the Russian project INTERBALL-Tail performs electron measurements from 10 to 26 000 eV over a 4 solid angle in a satellite rotation period. The INTERBALL-Tail probe was launched on 3 August 1995 together with a subsatellite into a 65° inclination orbit with an apogee of about 30 RE. The INTERBALL mission also includes a polar spacecraft launched in August 1996 for correlated studies of the outer magnetosphere and of the auroral regions. We present new observations concerning the low-latitude boundary layers (LLBL) of the magnetosphere obtained near the dawn magnetic meridian. LLBL are encountered at the interface between two plasma regimes, the magnetosheath and the dayside extension of the plasma sheet. Unexpectedly, the radial extent of the region where LLBL electrons can be sporadically detected as plasma clouds can reach up to 5 RE inside the magnetopause. The LLBL core electrons have an average energy of the order of 100 eV and are systematically field-aligned and counterstreaming. As a trend, the temperature of the LLBL electrons increases with decreasing distance to Earth. Along the satellite orbit, the apparent time of occurrence of LLBL electrons can vary from about 5 to 20 min from one pass to another. An initial first comparison between electron- and magnetic-field measurements indicates that the LLBL clouds coincide with a strong increase in the magnetic field (by up to a factor of 2). The resulting strong magnetic field gradient can explain why the plasma-sheet electron flux in the keV range is strongly depressed in LLBL occurrence regions (up to a factor of \sim10). We also show that LLBL electron encounters are related to field-aligned current structures and that wide LLBL correspond to northward interplanetary magnetic field. Evidence for LLBL/plasma-sheet electron leakage into the magnetosheath during southward IMF is also presented.

Description: The dynamics of the ion distribution function near the Earth's bow shock is studied on the basis of quasi-3D measurements of ion energy spectra in the range of 30–24200 eV/q with the Russian-Cuban CORALL instrument on the INTERBALL/Tail-probe satellite. The instrument was designed for observations of magnetospheric plasma and measures ions, in an angular range of 36°–144° from the Earth-Sun direction. Ion populations generated by the Earth bow shock are often observed upstream from the bow shock. In the solar-wind stream compressed and heated by the passing of very dense magnetic cloud (CME), two types of these ion populations were measured upstream and before the bow shock crossing on 25 August 1995 at 07:37 UT. Both populations were observed in the energy range above 2 keV. At ~06:20 UT, when the angle between the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field and normal to the bow shock VBn was ≃ 43° the instrument observed a narrow, fast (~800 km/s) field-aligned beam moving from the Earth. At ~07:30, when Bn ≃ 28°, the wide ion pitch-angle distribution was observed. A similar suprathermal ion population is observed in the magnetosheath simultaneously with the solar-wind ion population being heated and deflected from the Sun-Earth direction. The similarity of observations during the mentioned time-interval and under usual solar-wind conditions allows us to conclude that types of suprathermal ion populations upstream and downstream from the bow shock do not depend on the solar-wind disturbance generated by magnetic cloud.

Description: The fast plasma analyzer EU-1 of the SCA-1 complex plasma spectrometer is installed onboard the Interball Tail Probe (Interball-1). It provides fast three-dimensional measurements of the ion distribution function on the low-spin-rate Prognoz satellite (about 2min). The EU-1 ion spectrometer with virtual aperture consists of two detectors with 16 E/Q narrow-angle analyzers and electrostatic scanners. This configuration allows one to measure the ion distribution function in three dimensions (over 15 energy steps in 50 eV/Q–5.0 keV/Q energy range in 64 directions) in 7.5 s, which makes it independent of the slow rotation speed of the satellite. A description of the instrument and its capabilities is given. We present here the preliminary results of measurements of ions for two cases of the dawn low- and mid-latitude magnetopause crossings. The properties of observed ion structures and their tentative explanation are presented. The 12 September 1995 pass at low latitude at about 90° solar-zenith angle on the dawn side of the magnetosphere is considered in more detail. Dispersive ions are seen at the edge of the magnetopause and at the edges of subsequently observed plasma structures. Changes in ion velocity distribution in plasma structures observed after the first magnetopause crossing suggest that what resembles multiple magnetopause crossings may be plasma blobs penetrating the magnetosphere. Observed variations of plasma parameters near magnetopause structures suggest nonstationary reconnection as the most probable mechanism for observed structures.

Description: We analyze two LLBL crossings made by the Interball-Tail satellite under a southward or variable magnetosheath magnetic field: one crossing on the flank of the magnetosphere, and another one closer to the subsolar point. Three different types of ion velocity distributions within the LLBL are observed: (a) D-shaped distributions, (b) ion velocity distributions consisting of two counter-streaming components of magnetosheath-type, and (c) distributions with three components, one of which has nearly zero parallel velocity and two counter-streaming components. Only the (a) type fits to the single magnetic flux tube formed by reconnection between the magnetospheric and magnetosheath magnetic fields. We argue that two counter-streaming magnetosheath-like ion components observed by Interball within the LLBL cannot be explained by the reflection of the ions from the magnetic mirror deeper within the magnetosphere. Types (b) and (c) ion velocity distributions would form within spiral magnetic flux tubes consisting of a mixture of alternating segments originating from the magnetosheath and from magnetospheric plasma. The shapes of ion velocity distributions and their evolution with decreasing number density in the LLBL indicate that a significant part of the LLBL is located on magnetic field lines of long spiral flux tube islands at the magnetopause, as has been proposed and found to occur in magnetopause simulations. We consider these observations as evidence for multiple reconnection Χ-lines between magnetosheath and magnetospheric flux tubes. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp and boundary layers; solar wind-magnetosphere interactions)