ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO Ann. Geophys. 1432-0576 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/angeo-27-725-2009 Cluster and Double Star multipoint observations of a plasma bubble Walsh A. P. 1 Fazakerley A. N. 1 Lahiff A. D. 1 Volwerk M. 2 Grocott A. 3 Dunlop M. W. 4 Lui A. T. Y. 5 Kistler L. M. 6 Lester M. 3 Mouikis C. 6 Pu Z. 7 Shen C. 8 Shi J. 8 Taylor M. G. G. T. 9 Lucek E. 10 Zhang T. L. 2 Dandouras I. 11 Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT, UK Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Schmiedlstra{ß}e 6, 8042 Graz, Austria Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Rd, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0QX, UK The Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd, Laurel MD, 20723-6099, USA Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham NH, 03824, USA Peking University, Beijing, China State Key Laboratory for Space Weather, CSSAR, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China European Space Technology Centre, Keplerlaan 1, Po Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, UK Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Toulouse, France 16 02 2009 27 2 725 743 Copyright: © 2009 A. P. Walsh et al. 2009 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/27/725/2009/angeo-27-725-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/27/725/2009/angeo-27-725-2009.pdf

Depleted flux tubes, or plasma bubbles, are one possible explanation of bursty bulk flows, which are transient high speed flows thought to be responsible for a large proportion of flux transport in the magnetotail. Here we report observations of one such plasma bubble, made by the four Cluster spacecraft and Double Star TC-2 around 14:00 UT on 21 September 2005, during a period of southward, but <I>B<sub>Y</sub></I>-dominated IMF. In particular the first direct observations of return flows around the edges of a plasma bubble, and the first observations of plasma bubble features within 8 <I>R<sub>E</sub></I> of the Earth, consistent with MHD simulations (Birn et al., 2004) are presented. The implications of the presence of a strong <I>B<sub>Y</sub></I> in the IMF and magnetotail on the propagation of the plasma bubble and development of the associated current systems in the magnetotail and ionosphere are discussed. It is suggested that a strong <I>B<sub>Y</sub></I> can rotate the field aligned current systems at the edges of the plasma bubble away from its duskward and dawnward flanks.

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