Evidence for the dissipation region in magnetotail reconnection

Abstract

Signatures of the dissipation region of collisionless magnetic reconnection are investigated by the Geotail spacecraft for the 15 May 2003 event. The energy dissipation in the rest frame of the electron's bulk flow is considered in an approximate form D*_e, which is validated by a particle-in-cell simulation. The dissipation measure is directly evaluated from the {plasma moments}, the electric field, and the magnetic field. Using D*_e, a compact dissipation region is successfully detected in the vicinity of the possible X-point in Geotail data. The dissipation rate is 45 pWm**{-3}. The length of the dissipation region is estimated to 1--2 local ion inertial length. The Lorentz work W, the work rate by Lorentz force to plasmas, is also introduced. It is positive over the reconnection region and it has a peak around the pileup region away from the X-point. These new measures D*_e and W provide useful information to understand the reconnection structure.

arXiv commentto appear in GRL

References in corpus (4)

• Two-scale structure of the electron dissipation region during collisionless magnetic reconnection
• New Measure of the Dissipation Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
• Electron Surfing Acceleration in Magnetic Reconnection
• The inner structure of collisionless magnetic reconnection: The electron-frame dissipation measure and Hall fields

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Electron Power-Law Spectra in Solar and Space Plasmas
• Particle dynamics in the electron current layer in collisionless magnetic reconnection
• Kinetic aspects of the ion current layer in a reconnection outflow exhaust
• In-situ evidence of electron energization in the electron diffusion region of magnetotail reconnection