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Two-dimensional velocity of the magnetic structure observed on 11 July 2017 by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft
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  • Richard E. Denton,
  • Roy B. Torbert,
  • Kevin J Genestreti,
  • Hiroshi Hasegawa,
  • Roberto Manuzzo,
  • Gerard Belmont,
  • Laurence Rezeau,
  • Francesco Califano,
  • Rumi Nakamura,
  • Jan Egedal,
  • Olivier Le Contel,
  • James L Burch,
  • Ivan Dors,
  • Matthew R Argall,
  • Christopher T. Russell,
  • Robert J. Strangeway,
  • Barbara L. Giles
Richard E. Denton
Dartmouth College

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Roy B. Torbert
University of New Hampshire
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Kevin J Genestreti
Southwest Research Institute
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Hiroshi Hasegawa
Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA
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Roberto Manuzzo
Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
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Gerard Belmont
LPP
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Laurence Rezeau
Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas
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Francesco Califano
University of Pisa
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Rumi Nakamura
Space Research Institute
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Jan Egedal
UW-Madison
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Olivier Le Contel
CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/Sorbonne Université/Université Paris-Saclay/Obser. de Paris
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James L Burch
Southwest Research Institute
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Ivan Dors
University of New Hampshire
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Matthew R Argall
University of New Hampshire
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Christopher T. Russell
University of California Los Angeles
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Robert J. Strangeway
University of California Los Angeles
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Barbara L. Giles
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Abstract

In order to determine particle velocities and electric field in the frame of the magnetic structure, one first needs to determine the velocity of the magnetic structure in the frame of the spacecraft observations. Here, we show how to determine a two dimensional magnetic structure velocity for the magnetic reconnection event observed in the magnetotail by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft on 11 July 2017. We use two different multi-spacecraft methods, Spatio-Temporal Difference (STD) and the recently developed polynomial reconstruction method. Both of these methods use the magnetic field measurements, and the reconstruction technique also uses the current density measured by the particle instrument. We find rough agreement between the results of our methods and with other velocity determinations previously published. We also explain a number of features of STD and show that the polynomial reconstruction technique is only likely to be valid within a distance of two spacecraft spacings from the centroid of the MMS spacecraft. Both of these methods are susceptible to contamination by magnetometer calibration errors.
Mar 2021Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics volume 126 issue 3. 10.1029/2020JA028705