Relationship between FAC at plasma sheet boundary layers and AE index during storms from August to October,2001

Unlike the previous single (dual) satellite observation, the four Clusterll satellites make it possible to directly compute the continuous field-aligned current (FAC) density according to the magnetic data from them and to enable the investigation of the relationship between the FAC and geomagnetic activity. This paper analyzes the observation data when the Cluster satellites crossed the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL) in the magnetotail during the two magnetic storms in August to October 2001. According to the data, during the magnetic storms the relationship between the variations of FAC and AE index turned out to be: 1) FAC was obviously increasing during the storms; 2) FAC density was approximately negatively correlated with AE index from the sudden commencement to the early main phase of the storm; 3) they were approximately positively correlated during the late main phase and early recovery phase; 4) they were no apparent correlation during the late recovery phase.