Electron scale structures and magnetic reconnection signatures in the turbulent magnetosheath

Abstract

Collisionless space plasma turbulence can generate reconnecting thin current sheets as suggested by recent results of numerical magnetohydrodynamic simulations. The MMS mission provides the first serious opportunity to check if small ion-electron-scale reconnection, generated by turbulence, resembles the reconnection events frequently observed in the magnetotail or at the magnetopause. Here we investigate field and particle observations obtained by the MMS fleet in the turbulent terrestrial magnetosheath behind quasi-parallel bow shock geometry. We observe multiple small-scale current sheets during the event and present a detailed look of one of the detected structures. The emergence of thin current sheets can lead to electron scale structures where ions are demagnetized. Within the selected structure we see signatures of ion demagnetization, electron jets, electron heating and agyrotropy suggesting that MMS spacecraft observe reconnection at these scales.

References in corpus (2)

• New Measure of the Dissipation Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
• Magnetic Reconnection and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Wind

Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Observations of heating along intermittent structures in the inner heliosphere from PSP data
• Identification of active magnetic reconnection using magnetic flux transport in plasma turbulence
• Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation of magnetic reconnection in the downstream of a quasi-perpendicular shock
• MMS Observations of Whistler and Lower Hybrid Drift Waves Associated with Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath
• Formation and Evolution of Coherent Structures in 3D Strongly Turbulent Magnetized Plasmas
• Magnetic Reconnection within the Boundary Layer of a Magnetic Cloud in the Solar Wind
• Electron inertia effects in 3D hybrid-kinetic collisionless plasma turbulence
• Nature of electrostatic fluctuations in the terrestrial magnetosheath
• Turbulent dynamo in the terrestrial magnetosheath
• Electron Heat Flux and Whistler Instability in the Earth's Magnetosheath