The cusp proton aurora: CLUSTER, POLAR, and IMAGE observations

Q.-G. Zong and T.A. Fritz and H.U. Frey
Boston Uni. (zong@bu.edu)


On April 21, 2001, an interplanetary CME started to interact with the magnetosphere
when Cluster satellites were travelling in the cusp region. A strong enhancement of
energetic particle has been observed by the RAPID/Cluster during the leading phase 
of the CME. This paper demonstrated that the cusp proton aurora could be also caused
during the different IMF orientiation although the proton aurora in the cusp region
generally happens during IMF northward. The thrust of this study concentrates on the
relations between the proton aurora and the in situ energetic particles observations 
via multi-satellite observations.

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Presented at the 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.  
10-19 October 2002