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On 18 March 2002, a jet of energetic solar protons collided
with the Earth's atmosphere and created a bright 'spot' seen
by NASA's IMAGE spacecraft. Simultaneous observations by the Cluster spacecraft
has now shown that the region was experiencing a turbulent event
known as 'magnetic reconnection'. Proton aurorae were globally imaged for the first time by
NASA's IMAGE spacecraft. The images revealed the presence of
the 'dayside proton auroral spots'. By a fortunate coincidence,
IMAGE and Cluster both spotted the event on 18 March 2002.
Combining with IMAGE's observations, Cluster made it possible
to establish the ground truth of the phenomenon.
(2002: H.U. Frey, S.B. Mende, T.J. Immel, S.A. Fuselier, E.S. Claflin, J.-C.
Gerard, B. Hubert)
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