ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO Ann. Geophys. 1432-0576 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/angeo-23-3715-2005 Electron-scale sheets of whistlers close to the magnetopause Stenberg G. 1 Oscarsson T. 1 André M. 2 Vaivads A. 2 Morooka M. 2 Cornilleau-Wehrlin N. 3 Fazakerley A. 4 Lavraud B. 5 Décréau P. M. E. 6 Department of Physics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden CETP/UVSQ, Vélizy, France MSSL, University College, London, UK CESR, Toulouse, France LPCE et Université d’Orléans, France 23 12 2005 23 12 3715 3725 Copyright: © 2005 G. Stenberg et al. 2005 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/23/3715/2005/angeo-23-3715-2005.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/23/3715/2005/angeo-23-3715-2005.pdf

Whistler emissions close to the magnetopause on the magnetospheric side are investigated using the four Cluster spacecraft. The waves are found to be generated in thin (electron-scale) sheets moving with the plasma drift velocity. A feature in the electron data coincides with the waves; hot magnetospheric electrons disappear for a few satellite spins. This produces or enhances a temperature anisotropy, which is found to be responsible for the generation of the whistler mode waves. The high energy electrons are thought to be lost through the magnetopause and we suggest that the field lines, on which the waves are generated, are directly connected to a reconnection diffusion region at the magnetopause.