1. Solar wind directional change triggering flapping motions of the current sheet: MMS observations.
- Author
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Wang, Guoqiang, Zhang, Tielong, Wu, Mingyu, Schmid, Daniel, Wang, Geng, and Volwerk, Martin
- Subjects
- *
SOLAR wind , *CURRENT sheets , *MOTION , *STELLAR winds - Abstract
We report on a flapping motion event near the substorm onset on 17 June 2017 usingMagnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission data. A strong current density with a maximumvalue of ∼190 nA/m2 is observed during the flapping. The north-to-south (south-to-north)crossing of the neutral sheet corresponds to an increase (a decrease) of the ZGSM componentof the solar wind VZ,SW. The periods (∼8 min) of the flapping and variations of VZ,SW arealmost equal. In addition, dVZ,SW/dt and dBX/dt observed by MMS exhibit a strong negativecorrelation. These observations suggest that the flapping motions are triggered by the solarwind directional change via creating a motion of the current sheet in the north-southdirection. The pressure difference between the northern and southern lobes caused by thesolar wind is expected to be a possible contribution to the formation of the flapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019