Rights statement: © Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 2012 |
---|---|
<mark>Journal</mark> | Annales Geophysicae |
Issue number | 6 |
Volume | 30 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Pages (from-to) | 1025-1035 |
Publication Status | Published |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
The Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI) can drive waves at the magnetopause. These waves can grow to form rolled-up vortices and facilitate transfer of plasma into the magnetosphere. To investigate the persistence and frequency of such waves at the magnetopause we have carried out a survey of all Double Star 1 magnetopause crossings, using a combination of ion and magnetic field measurements. Using criteria originally used in a Geotail study made by Hasegawa et al. (2006) (forthwith referred to as H2006), 17 candidate events were identified from the entire TC-1 mission (covering similar to 623 orbits where the magnetopause was sampled), a majority of which were on the dayside of the terminator. The relationship between density and shear velocity was then investigated, to identify the predicted signature of a rolled up vortex from H2006 and all 17 events exhibited some level of rolled up behavior. The location of the events had a clear dawn-dusk asymmetry, with 12 (71%) on the post noon, dusk flank suggesting preferential growth in this region.