Recent THEMIS and Coordinated GBO Measurements of Substorm Expansion Onset: Do We Finally Have an Answer?

[摘要] For nearly 30 years an often-times heated debate has engaged the substorm community: Do substorms begin with the formation of a new reconnection site in the midtail plasma sheet (the Near-Earth Neutral Line model) or do they begin near the transition region between stretched tail and dipolar field lines (the Current Disruption model). The THEMIS mission, with a coordinated suite of five in-situ spacecraft and ground observatories, has greatly extended our understanding of how substorms initiate and evolve. But have the new data resolved the fundamental question? In this talk I review the last few year's of sub storm research, with an emphasis of how the THEMIS data have revolutionized our understanding.

[发布日期] 2011-08-28

[学科分类] 地质物理学