Flapping motions of the current sheet in the terrestrial magnetotail
The magnetosphere is formed by the Earth's geomagnetic field interacting with the solar wind. The magnetosphere on the night side is stretched by the solar wind to form a magnetotail. And the current sheet is a key area of the magnetotail, since there are a lot of dynamic processes, such as magnetic reconnection, bursty bulk flows and current sheet flapping motions in this area. The flapping motion manifests large up and down movement of the current sheet in the northern and southern directions.
With the development of satellite missions and the improved accuracy of field and ion data measurements, the properties of current sheet flapping motions are gradually revealed, especially their propagations. However, the mechanisms of the flapping are still not well understood. In this report, I will briefly introduce the research progress of current sheet flapping motions, and introduce the observations of the flapping triggered by the solar wind directional change.