Title: Simultaneous measurements on three satellites and the observation of the geomagnetic tail at 1000<i>R<sub>E</sub></i>
Abstract: During the last week of September 1966 the heliocentric orbiting spacecraft Pioneer 7 was behind the earth in a position to observe the geomagnetic tail between 900 and 1050 RE. At the same time Explorer 28 and Explorer 33 were monitoring the interplanetary medium and the magnetosheath near the earth. Comparison of these simultaneous magnetic field measurements permits the isolation of intervals when Pioneer 7 is observing steady, enhanced-magnitude solar or antisolar directed fields characteristic of the extended geomagnetic tail. These field are different from the interplanetary fields convecting past the other two spacecraft. The occurrence of approximately 10 intervals of tail observation of duration from a few minutes to several hours is interpreted as a sweeping of the tail across the spacecraft as the tail responds to variations in the direction of plasma flow. Discontinuous features in the interplanetary magnetic field are also found to convect past the three spacecraft with velocities that compare well with interplanetary solar wind velocities measured by the Vela satellites at the same time. Field magnitudes near the tail at 1000 RE are found to be weaker than the corresponding interplanetary field as is predicted by the magnetogasdynamic theory.
Publication Year: 1968
Publication Date: 1968-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 59
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