Turbulent Energy Transfer at Dipolarization Fronts

Dipolarization fronts (DFs), ion-scale magnetic transients characterized by dramatic enhancement of northward magnetic field, have been documented as crucial energy transfer regions in the magnetosphere. DF-driven energy transfer has hitherto been studied mainly in the laminar regime. Energy transfer driven by turbulent processes, however, remains unclear. Here we perform a comprehensive investigation of turbulent energy transfer (TET) developed at DFs, via using high-cadence data from Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. We find that: (a) TET is equally governed by energy loads and generators, different from laminar energy transfer which is typically dominated by energy loads; (b) ion and electron currents play comparable roles in driving TET; (c) TET is positively correlated with local magnetic field strength and ion speed; (d) TET shows asymmetric global distributions along the dawn-dusk direction. These features implicate that TET is primarily related to electromagnetic turbulence at electron-ion hybrid scales. These new results, uncovering unique characteristics of DF-driven TET, can deeply advance our understanding of energy budgets in the magnetosphere.