Electrostatic solitary waves in current layers: from Cluster observations during a super-substorm to beam experiments at the LAPD
Abstract
Electrostatic Solitary Waves (ESWs) have been observed by several spacecraft in the current layers of Earth's magnetosphere since 1982. ESWs are manifested as isolated in the high time resolution waveform data obtained on Cluster spacecraft.
They are thus nonlinear structures generated out of nonlinear instabilities and processes. We report the first observations of ESWs associated with the onset of a super-substorm that occurred on 24 August 2005 while the Cluster spacecraft were located in the magnetotail at around 18-19 RE and moving northward from the plasma sheet to the lobes.
We compare the characteristics of the ESWs observed during this event to those created in the laboratory at the University of California-Los Angeles Plasma Device (LAPD) with an electron beam.