• DOI:10.1126/science.1160495
• Corpus ID: 206514133

Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset

@article{Angelopoulos2008TailRT,
  title={Tail Reconnection Triggering Substorm Onset},
  author={Vassilis Angelopoulos and James P. Mcfadden and Davin E. Larson and Charles W. Carlson and Stephen B. Mende and Harald U. Frey and Tai D. Phan and David Gary Sibeck and Karl‐Heinz Glassmeier and Uli Auster and Eric F. Donovan and Ian R. Mann and I. Jonathan Rae and Christopher T. Russell and Andrei Runov and Xu‐Zhi Zhou and Larry Kepko},
  journal={Science},
  year={2008},
  volume={321},
  pages={931 - 935}
}

• V. Angelopoulos, J. Mcfadden, +14 authors L. Kepko
• Published 15 August 2008
• Physics
• Science

Magnetospheric substorms explosively release solar wind energy previously stored in Earth's magnetotail, encompassing the entire magnetosphere and producing spectacular auroral displays. It has been unclear whether a substorm is triggered by a disruption of the electrical current flowing across the near-Earth magnetotail, at ∼10 RE (RE: Earth radius, or 6374 kilometers), or by the process of magnetic reconnection typically seen farther out in the magnetotail, at ∼20 to 30 RE. We report on simultaneous measurements in the magnetotail at multiple distances, at the time of substorm onset. Reconnection was observed at 20 RE, at least 1.5 minutes before auroral intensification, at least 2 minutes before substorm expansion, and about 3 minutes before near-Earth current disruption. These results demonstrate that substorms are likely initiated by tail reconnection.