Abstract
A dipolarization of the background magnetic field was observed during a
conjunction of the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft and Van
Allen Probe B on 22 September 2018. The spacecraft were located in the
inner magnetosphere at L~6-7 just before midnight
magnetic local time (MLT). The separation between MMS and Probe B was
~1 Re. Gradual dipolarization or an increase of the
northward component Bz of the background field occurred on a timescale
of minutes. Since both MMS and Probe B measured similar gradual
increases, the spatial scale was of the order of the separation between
these two. On top of that, there were Bz increases, and a decrease in
one case, on a timescale of seconds, accompanied by large electric
fields with amplitudes > several tens of mV/m. Spatial
scale lengths were of the order of the ion inertial length and the ion
gyroradius. The inertial term in the momentum equation and the Hall term
in the generalized Ohm’s law were sometimes non-negligible. These
small-scale variations are discussed in terms of the
ballooning/interchange instability (BICI) and kinetic Alfven waves. It
is inferred that physics of multiple scales was involved in the dynamics
of this dipolarization event.