Transport path of cold-dense plasmas in the dusk magnetotail plasma
sheet: MMS Observations
Abstract
The near-Earth plasma sheet becomes cold and dense under northward
interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) condition, which suggests efficient
solar wind plasma entry into the magnetosphere across the magnetopause
for northward IMF and a possible contribution of ionospheric oxygen ion
outflow. The cold and dense characteristics of the plasma sheet are more
evident in the magnetotail flank regions that are the interface between
cold solar wind plasma and hot magnetospheric plasma. Several physical
mechanisms have been proposed to explain the solar wind plasma entry
across the magnetopause and resultant formation of the cold-dense plasma
sheet (CDPS) in the tail flank regions. However, the transport path of
the cold-dense plasma inside the magnetotail has not been understood
yet. Here we present a case study of the CDPS in the dusk magnetotail by
Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft under strongly northward IMF
and high-density solar wind conditions. The ion distribution function
consists of high- and low-energy components, and the low-energy one
intermittently shows energy dispersion in the directions parallel and
anti-parallel to the local magnetic field. The time-of-flight analysis
of the energy-dispersed low-energy ions suggests that these ions
originate in the region farther down the tail, move along the magnetic
field toward the ionosphere and then come back to the magnetotail by the
mirror reflection. The pitch-angle dispersion analysis gives consistent
results on the traveling time and path length of the energy-dispersed
ions. Based on these observations, we discuss possible generation
mechanisms of the energy-dispersed structure of the low-energy ions
during the northward IMF.