Two Classes of Equatorial Magnetotail Dipolarization Fronts Observed by Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission: A Statistical Overview
Abstract
Magnetotail earthward fast plasma flows (Baumjohann et al., 1990) or bursty bulk flows (BBF, Angelopoulos et al., 1992) play a major role in the energy, plasma and magnetic flux transport from the magnetotail to the inner magnetosphere (e.g., Angelopoulos et al., 1994). They are often, although not always (Richard et al., 2022), accompanied by a sharp and transient increase of the northward component of the magnetic field called dipolarization fronts (DFs). DFs are considered as tangential discontinuities (velocity and magnetic field variations are tangential to the front so with no normal component of the magnetic field and no plasma flux flowing through it) separating a relatively cold dense plasma at rest from a hot tenuous plasma in rapid motion (e.g., H. S. Fu et al., 2012a; Sergeev et al., 2009). The origin of the fast flows and their related DFs is still a matter of debate. The main formation mechanisms currently studied are magnetic reconnection (e.g.,
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