Substorm recovery phase

spaceweb@oulu.fi - last update: 11 May 1998, 2030 UT (RR)

The recovery phase ends the substorm. See, e.g., Opgenoorth et al. (1994).

Lasts about one hour
Plasma sheet recovers.
Subauroral electric field events occur (see ionospheric troughs)
Double oval structure forms, and eastward propagating omega bands are seen on the equatorward one
Pulsating auroras are very typical in the morning sector; also black aurora may be related to the recovery phase.
Magnetosphere returns into the pre-substorm state
May also prepare the magnetosphere for the next substorm

Opgenoorth, H. J., M. A. L. Persson, T. I. Pulkkinen, and R. J. Pellinen, The recovery phase of magnetospheric substorms and its association with morning-sector aurora, J. Geophys. Res., 99, 4115-, 1994.