MMS observations of electron-scale filamentary currents in the reconnection exhaust and near the X line

被引：107

作者：

Phan, T. D. ^{[1
]}

Eastwood, J. P. ^{[2
]}

Cassak, P. A. ^{[3
]}

Oieroset, M. ^{[1
]}

Gosling, J. T. ^{[4
]}

Gershman, D. J. ^{[5
,6
,7
]}

Mozer, F. S. ^{[1
]}

Shay, M. A. ^{[8
]}

Fujimoto, M. ^{[9
]}

Daughton, W. ^{[10
]}

Drake, J. F. ^{[11
]}

Burch, J. L. ^{[12
]}

Torbert, R. B. ^{[12
,13
]}

Ergun, R. E. ^{[4
]}

Chen, L. J. ^{[5
,6
,7
]}

Wang, S. ^{[6
,7
]}

Pollock, C. ^{[14
]}

Dorelli, J. C. ^{[5
]}

Lavraud, B. ^{[15
,16
]}

Giles, B. L. ^{[5
]}

Moore, T. E. ^{[5
]}

Saito, Y.

Avanov, L. A. ^{[5
,6
,7
]}

Paterson, W. ^{[5
]}

Strangeway, R. J. ^{[17
]}

Russell, C. T. ^{[17
]}

Khotyaintsev, Y. ^{[18
]}

Lindqvist, P. A. ^{[9
,19
]}

Oka, M. ^{[1
]}

Wilder, F. D. ^{[4
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[2] Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Blackett Lab, London, England

[3] West Virginia Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Morgantown, WV USA

[4] Univ Colorado, LASP, Boulder, CO 80309 USA

[5] NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD USA

[6] Univ Maryland, Dept Phys, College Pk, MD 20742 USA

[7] Univ Maryland, Inst Phys Sci & Technol, College Pk, MD 20742 USA

[8] Univ Delaware, Dept Phys & Astron, Newark, DE USA

[9] ISAS JAXA, Kanagawa, Japan

[10] Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, NM USA

[11] Univ Maryland, Dept Astron, College Pk, MD 20742 USA

[12] Southwest Res Inst, San Antonio, TX USA

[13] Univ New Hampshire, Inst Study Earth Oceans & Space, Durham, NH 03824 USA

[14] Denali Sci, Healy, AK USA

[15] Univ Toulouse, Inst Rech Astrophys & Planetol, Toulouse, France

[16] Ctr Natl Rech Sci, Toulouse, France

[17] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Earth Planetary & Space Sci, Los Angeles, CA USA

[18] Swedish Inst Space Phys, Uppsala, Sweden

[19] Royal Inst Technol, Stockholm, Sweden

来源：

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS | 2016年 / 43卷 / 12期

基金：

美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

MAGNETIC-FIELD LINES; DIFFUSION REGION; MAGNETOPAUSE;

D O I：

10.1002/2016GL069212

中图分类号：

P [天文学、地球科学];

学科分类号：

07 ;

摘要：

We report Magnetospheric Multiscale observations of macroscopic and electron-scale current layers in asymmetric reconnection. By intercomparing plasma, magnetic, and electric field data at multiple crossings of a reconnecting magnetopause on 22 October 2015, when the average interspacecraft separation was similar to 10 km, we demonstrate that the ion and electron moments are sufficiently accurate to provide reliable current density measurements at 30ms cadence. These measurements, which resolve current layers narrower than the interspacecraft separation, reveal electron-scale filamentary Hall currents and electron vorticity within the reconnection exhaust far downstream of the X line and even in the magnetosheath. Slightly downstream of the X line, intense (up to 3 mu A/m(2)) electron currents, a super-Alfvenic outflowing electron jet, and nongyrotropic crescent shape electron distributions were observed deep inside the ion-scale magnetopause current sheet and embedded in the ion diffusion region. These characteristics are similar to those attributed to the electron dissipation/diffusion region around the X line.

引用

页码：6060 / 6069

页数：10

共 27 条

[1] Electron distribution functions in the diffusion region of asymmetric magnetic reconnection [J].

Bessho, N. ;

Chen, L. -J. ;

Hesse, M. .

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 2016, 43 (05) :1828-1836

[2] Electron-scale measurements of magnetic reconnection in space [J].

Burch, J. L. ;

Torbert, R. B. ;

Phan, T. D. ;

Chen, L. -J. ;

Moore, T. E. ;

Ergun, R. E. ;

Eastwood, J. P. ;

Gershman, D. J. ;

Cassak, P. A. ;

Argall, M. R. ;

Wang, S. ;

Hesse, M. ;

Pollock, C. J. ;

Giles, B. L. ;

Nakamura, R. ;

Mauk, B. H. ;

Fuselier, S. A. ;

Russell, C. T. ;

Strangeway, R. J. ;

Drake, J. F. ;

Shay, M. A. ;

Khotyaintsev, Yu. V. ;

Lindqvist, P. -A. ;

Marklund, G. ;

Wilder, F. D. ;

Young, D. T. ;

Torkar, K. ;

Goldstein, J. ;

Dorelli, J. C. ;

Avanov, L. A. ;

Oka, M. ;

Baker, D. N. ;

Jaynes, A. N. ;

Goodrich, K. A. ;

Cohen, I. J. ;

Turner, D. L. ;

Fennell, J. F. ;

Blake, J. B. ;

Clemmons, J. ;

Goldman, M. ;

Newman, D. ;

Petrinec, S. M. ;

Trattner, K. J. ;

Lavraud, B. ;

Reiff, P. H. ;

Baumjohann, W. ;

Magnes, W. ;

Steller, M. ;

Lewis, W. ;

Saito, Y. .

SCIENCE, 2016, 352 (6290)

[3] Scaling of asymmetric magnetic reconnection: General theory and collisional simulations [J].

Cassak, P. A. ;

Shay, M. A. .

PHYSICS OF PLASMAS, 2007, 14 (10)

[4] A current filamentation mechanism for breaking magnetic field lines during reconnection [J].

Che, H. ;

Drake, J. F. ;

Swisdak, M. .

NATURE, 2011, 474 (7350) :184-187

[5] THE CAUSES OF CONVECTION IN THE EARTHS MAGNETOSPHERE - A REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE IMS [J].

COWLEY, SWH .

REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS, 1982, 20 (03) :531-565

[6] Computing the reconnection rate in turbulent kinetic layers by using electron mixing to identify topology [J].

Daughton, W. ;

Nakamura, T. K. M. ;

Karimabadi, H. ;

Roytershteyn, V. ;

Loring, B. .

PHYSICS OF PLASMAS, 2014, 21 (05)

[7]

Daughton W, 2011, NAT PHYS, V7, P539, DOI [10.1038/NPHYS1965, 10.1038/nphys1965]

[8] Four-point Cluster application of magnetic field analysis tools: The discontinuity analyzer [J].

Dunlop, MW ;

Balogh, A ;

Glassmeier, KH .

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, 2002, 107 (A11)

[9] ION REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION DURING RECONNECTION AT THE EARTHS SUBSOLAR MAGNETOPAUSE [J].

FUSELIER, SA ;

KLUMPAR, DM ;

SHELLEY, EG .

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 1991, 18 (02) :139-142

[10] OBSERVATIONS OF RECONNECTION OF INTERPLANETARY AND LOBE MAGNETIC-FIELD LINES AT THE HIGH-LATITUDE MAGNETOPAUSE [J].

GOSLING, JT ;

THOMSEN, MF ;

BAME, SJ ;

ELPHIC, RC ;

RUSSELL, CT .

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, 1991, 96 (A8) :14097-14106

← 1 2 3 →