Switch-off slow shock/rotational discontinuity structures in collisionless magnetic reconnection: What to look for in satellite observations: SWITCH-OFF STRUCTURES IN RECONNECTION

Innocenti, M. E.; Cazzola, E.; Mistry, R.; Eastwood, J. P.; Goldman, M. V.; Newman, D. L.; Markidis, S.; Lapenta, G.

doi:10.1002/2017GL073092

Title: Switch-off slow shock/rotational discontinuity structures in collisionless magnetic reconnection: What to look for in satellite observations: SWITCH-OFF STRUCTURES IN RECONNECTION

Journal Article · Sat Apr 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073092· OSTI ID:1461521

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^[2]; Mistry, R. ^[3];

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Univ. of Leuven, Leuven (Belgium). Centre for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics
Univ. of Surrey, Guildford (United Kingdom). Dept. of Mathematics
Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Blackett Lab.
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics
KTH Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden). Dept. of Computational Science and Technologies

In Innocenti et al. (2015) we have observed and characterized for the first time Petschek-like switch-off slow shock/rotational discontinuity (SO-SS/RD) compound structures in a 2-D fully kinetic simulation of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Observing these structures in the solar wind or in the magnetotail would corroborate the possibility that Petschek exhausts develop in collisionless media as a result of single X point collisionless reconnection. Here we highlight their signatures in simulations with the aim of easing their identification in observations. The most notable signatures include a four-peaked ion current profile in the out-of-plane direction, associated ion distribution functions, increased electron and ion anisotropy downstream the SS, and increased electron agyrotropy downstream the RDs.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1461521

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 8; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 4 works

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