FAST-Geotail Correlative Studies of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Nightside Magnetosphere

K. Sigsbee, C. A. Cattell, R. L. Lysak (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455)

C. W. Carlson, R. E. Ergun, J. P. McFadden (Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720)

R. C. Elphic (Space and Atmospheric Sciences, Los Alamos National Lab, Los Alamos, NM 87545)

R. J. Strangeway (Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024)

F. Mozer (Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720)

K. Tsuruda and T. Yamamoto (ISAS, Sagamihara 229, Japan)

S. Kokubun (STELAB, Nagoya University, Toyokawa 442, Japan)

D. Fairfield (NASA/GSFC, Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, Code 695, Greenbelt, MD 20771)

In January and February of 1997 a number of conjunctions between the FAST and Geotail satellites occurred where FAST was in the nightside auroral zone and Geotail was close to midnight in the near equatorial plane. These events provide an excellent opportunity to examine the physical processes connecting the magnetotail at 20 to 40 earth radii and the auroral zone. Many interesting results have been obtained from previous studies of substorm associated low frequency waves in the magnetotail using data from the Geotail satellite. By performing similar analysis on events for which both FAST and Geotail data are available we hope to gain valuable insight into the time evolution of magnetospheric current systems and ExB flow during substorms. The FAST and Geotail conjunctions will also facilitate new studies of the processes involved in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling during both active and quiet intervals.