In situ spacecraft observations of a structured electron diffusion region during magnetopause reconnection
arXiv:1903.01876 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.99.043204
Abstract
The Electron Diffusion Region (EDR) is the region where magnetic reconnection is initiated and electrons are energized. Because of experimental difficulties, the structure of the EDR is still poorly understood. A key question is whether the EDR has a homogeneous or patchy structure. Here we report Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) novel spacecraft observations providing evidence of inhomogeneous current densities and energy conversion over a few electron inertial lengths within an EDR at the terrestrial magnetopause, suggesting that the EDR can be rather structured. These inhomogenenities are revealed through multi-point measurements because the spacecraft separation is comparable to a few electron inertial lengths, allowing the entire MMS tetrahedron to be within the EDR most of the time. These observations are consistent with recent high-resolution and low-noise kinetic simulations.
References in corpus (10)
- New Measure of the Dissipation Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
- Kinetic signatures of the region surrounding the X-line in asymmetric (magnetopause) reconnection
- Quantifying Gyrotropy in Magnetic Reconnection
- Magnetospheric Multiscale Dayside Reconnection Electron Diffusion Region Events
- The Effects of Turbulence on Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection at the Magnetopause
- On the origin of the crescent-shaped distributions observed by MMS at the magnetopause
- Turbulence in Three-Dimensional Simulations of Magnetopause Reconnection
- Localized Oscillatory Dissipation in Magnetopause Reconnection
- Multi-Spacecraft Measurement of Turbulence within a Magnetic Reconnection Jet
- Localized and intense energy conversion in the diffusion region of asymmetric magnetic reconnection