Statistical Properties of Magnetic Structures and Energy Dissipation during Turbulent Reconnection in the Earth's Magnetotail

Bergstedt, K.; Ji, H.; Jara‐Almonte, J.; Yoo, J.; Ergun, R. E.; Chen, L. ‐J.

doi:10.1029/2020gl088540

Statistical Properties of Magnetic Structures and Energy Dissipation during Turbulent Reconnection in the Earth's Magnetotail

Journal Article · Mon Sep 14 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl088540· OSTI ID:1668046

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]

Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)

Here, we present the first statistical study of magnetic structures and associated energy dissipation observed during a single period of turbulent magnetic reconnection, by using the in situ measurements of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in the Earth's magnetotail on 26 July 2017. The structures are selected by identifying a bipolar signature in the magnetic field and categorized as plasmoids or current sheets via an automated algorithm which examines current density and plasma flow. The size of the plasmoids forms a decaying exponential distribution ranging from subelectron up to ion scales. The presence of substantial number of current sheets is consistent with a physical picture of dynamic production and merging of plasmoids during turbulent reconnection. The magnetic structures are locations of significant energy dissipation via electric field parallel to the local magnetic field, while dissipation via perpendicular electric field dominates outside of the structures. Significant energy also returns from particles to fields.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-09CH11466

OSTI ID:: 1668046

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 47; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (72)

MMS Examination of FTEs at the Earth's Subsolar Magnetopause Akhavan-Tafti, M.; Slavin, J. A.; Le, G. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/2017ja024681	journal	February 2018
Initial ISEE magnetometer results: magnetopause observations Russell, C. T.; Elphic, R. C. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 22, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00212619	journal	December 1978
The FIELDS Instrument Suite on MMS: Scientific Objectives, Measurements, and Data Products Torbert, R. B.; Russell, C. T.; Magnes, W. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0109-8	journal	November 2014
The Axial Double Probe and Fields Signal Processing for the MMS Mission Ergun, R. E.; Tucker, S.; Westfall, J. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0115-x	journal	December 2014
Statistical analysis of the plasmoid evolution with Geotail observations Ieda, A.; Machida, S.; Mukai, T. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 103, Issue A3 https://doi.org/10.1029/97ja03240	journal	March 1998
Large-scale electron acceleration by parallel electric fields during magnetic reconnection Egedal, J.; Daughton, W.; Le, A. Nature Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2249	journal	February 2012
The onset of ion heating during magnetic reconnection with a strong guide field Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4889871	journal	July 2014
Evolution of Relativistic Plasmoid Chains in a Poynting-Dominated Plasma Takamoto, Makoto The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 775, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/775/1/50	journal	September 2013
Experimental Demonstration of the Collisionless Plasmoid Instability below the Ion Kinetic Scale during Magnetic Reconnection Olson, J.; Egedal, J.; Greess, S. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.116.255001	journal	June 2016
Statistical properties of magnetic structures and energy dissipation during turbulent reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail Bergstedt, K.; Ji, H.; Jara-Almonte, J. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States) https://doi.org/10.11578/1814936	dataset	January 2020
Phase Diagram for Magnetic Reconnection in Heliophysical, Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas Ji, Hantao; Daughton, William arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1109.0756	text	January 2011
A Maximum Entropy Principle for inferring the Distribution of 3D Plasmoids Lingam, Manasvi; Comisso, Luca arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1702.05782	text	January 2017
A computational model for exploring particle acceleration during reconnection in macro-scale systems Drake, J. F.; Arnold, H.; Swisdak, M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1809.04568	text	January 2018
The interplay of magnetically-dominated turbulence and magnetic reconnection in producing nonthermal particles Comisso, Luca; Sironi, Lorenzo Columbia University https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-prt9-kn88	dataset	January 2019
Structure and statistical properties of plasmoids in Jupiter's magnetotail: Plasmoids at Jupiter Vogt, Marissa F.; Jackman, Caitriona M.; Slavin, James A. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JA019393	journal	February 2014
How to find magnetic nulls and reconstruct field topology with MMS data?: RECONSTRUCT NULL TOPOLOGY WITH MMS DATA Fu, H. S.; Vaivads, A.; Khotyaintsev, Y. V. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JA021082	journal	May 2015
MMS observations of large guide field symmetric reconnection between colliding reconnection jets at the center of a magnetic flux rope at the magnetopause: Large Guide Field Reconnection at Flux Rope Center Øieroset, M.; Phan, T. D.; Haggerty, C. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069166	journal	June 2016
Electrostatic and electromagnetic fluctuations detected inside magnetic flux ropes during magnetic reconnection: LOWER HYBRID WAVES IN FLUX ROPES Wang, Rongsheng; Lu, Quanming; Nakamura, Rumi Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 121, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022906	journal	October 2016
Automated force‐free flux rope identification Smith, A. W.; Slavin, J. A.; Jackman, C. M. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022994	journal	January 2017
MMS Examination of FTEs at the Earth's Subsolar Magnetopause Akhavan-Tafti, M.; Slavin, J. A.; Le, G. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA024681	journal	February 2018
Magnetic Reconnection, Turbulence, and Particle Acceleration: Observations in the Earth's Magnetotail Ergun, R. E.; Goodrich, K. A.; Wilder, F. D. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/2018GL076993	journal	April 2018
Two different types of plasmoids in the plasma sheet: Cluster multisatellite analysis application: TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLASMOIDS Zhang, Y. C.; Shen, C.; Liu, Z. X. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1002/jgra.50542	journal	September 2013
Initial ISEE magnetometer results: magnetopause observations Russell, C. T.; Elphic, R. C. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 22, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00212619	journal	December 1978
The Magnetospheric Multiscale Magnetometers Russell, C. T.; Anderson, B. J.; Baumjohann, W. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0057-3	journal	August 2014
Magnetospheric Multiscale Science Mission Profile and Operations Fuselier, S. A.; Lewis, W. S.; Schiff, C. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0087-x	journal	September 2014
The Spin-Plane Double Probe Electric Field Instrument for MMS Lindqvist, P. -A.; Olsson, G.; Torbert, R. B. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0116-9	journal	November 2014
Fast Plasma Investigation for Magnetospheric Multiscale Pollock, C.; Moore, T.; Jacques, A. Space Science Reviews, Vol. 199, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-016-0245-4	journal	March 2016
Effects of reconnection on the coronal mass ejection process Lin, J.; Forbes, T. G. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 105, Issue A2 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JA900477	journal	February 2000
Geotail observations of magnetic flux ropes in the plasma sheet Slavin, J. A. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue A1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JA009557	journal	January 2003
Dimensional analysis of observed structures using multipoint magnetic field measurements: Application to Cluster: STRUCTURE DIMENSIONALITY DETERMINATION Shi, Q. Q.; Shen, C.; Pu, Z. Y. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL022454	journal	June 2005
Motion of observed structures calculated from multi-point magnetic field measurements: Application to Cluster Shi, Q. Q.; Shen, C.; Dunlop, M. W. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL025073	journal	January 2006
Formation of secondary islands during magnetic reconnection Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M.; Schoeffler, K. M. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL025957	journal	January 2006
Comparison of a statistical model for magnetic islands in large current layers with Hall MHD simulations and Cluster FTE observations: MAGNETIC ISLANDS Fermo, R. L.; Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 116, Issue A9 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JA016271	journal	September 2011
Intense Electric Fields and Electron-Scale Substructure Within Magnetotail Flux Ropes as Revealed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Stawarz, J. E.; Eastwood, J. P.; Genestreti, K. J. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079095	journal	September 2018
Energy Conversion by Parallel Electric Fields During Guide Field Reconnection in Scaled Laboratory and Space Experiments Fox, W.; Wilder, F. D.; Eriksson, S. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079883	journal	December 2018
Reconnection With Magnetic Flux Pileup at the Interface of Converging Jets at the Magnetopause Øieroset, M.; Phan, T. D.; Drake, J. F. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080994	journal	February 2019
Electron Diffusion Regions in Magnetotail Reconnection Under Varying Guide Fields Chen, L. ‐J.; Wang, S.; Hesse, M. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082393	journal	June 2019
MMS Study of the Structure of Ion‐Scale Flux Ropes in the Earth's Cross‐Tail Current Sheet Sun, W. J.; Slavin, J. A.; Tian, A. M. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083301	journal	June 2019
On the formation and evolution of plasmoids: A survey of ISEE 3 geotail data Moldwin, Mark B.; Hughes, W. Jeffrey Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 97, Issue A12 https://doi.org/10.1029/92JA01598	journal	January 1992
Initial GEOTAIL survey of magnetic substorm signatures in the magnetotail Nagai, T.; Takahashi, K.; Kawano, H. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 21, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1029/94GL01420	journal	December 1994
Statistical analysis of the plasmoid evolution with Geotail observations Ieda, A.; Machida, S.; Mukai, T. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 103, Issue A3 https://doi.org/10.1029/97JA03240	journal	March 1998
Structure of the magnetotail at 220 R _E and its response to geomagnetic activity Hones, E. W.; Baker, D. N.; Bame, S. J. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/GL011i001p00005	journal	January 1984
Direct observations of passages of the distant neutral line (80-140 R _E ) following substorm pnsets: ISEE-3 Baker, D. N.; Bame, S. J.; Birn, J. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1029/GL011i010p01042	journal	October 1984
Magnetic flux ropes in the Venus ionosphere: Observations and models Elphic, R. C.; Russell, C. T. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 88, Issue A1 https://doi.org/10.1029/JA088iA01p00058	journal	January 1983
Plasmoid-associated energetic ion bursts in the deep geomagnetic tail: Properties of plasmoids and the postplasmoid plasma sheet Richardson, I. G.; Cowley, S. W. H.; Hones, E. W. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 92, Issue A9 https://doi.org/10.1029/JA092iA09p09997	journal	January 1987
Magnetic field structure of interplanetary magnetic clouds at 1 AU Lepping, R. P.; Jones, J. A.; Burlaga, L. F. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 95, Issue A8 https://doi.org/10.1029/JA095iA08p11957	journal	January 1990
Sweet's mechanism for merging magnetic fields in conducting fluids Parker, E. N. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 62, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ062i004p00509	journal	December 1957
Magnetopause structure and attitude from Explorer 12 observations Sonnerup, B. U. Ö; Cahill, L. J. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 72, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ072i001p00171	journal	January 1967
Observation of energetic electrons within magnetic islands Chen, L. -J.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Puhl-Quinn, P. A. Nature Physics, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys777	journal	November 2007
The two-fluid dynamics and energetics of the asymmetric magnetic reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas Yamada, M.; Chen, L. -J.; Yoo, J. Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07680-2	journal	December 2018
Fully kinetic simulations of undriven magnetic reconnection with open boundary conditions Daughton, William; Scudder, Jack; Karimabadi, Homa Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2218817	journal	July 2006
Instability of current sheets and formation of plasmoid chains Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A.; Cowley, S. C. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 14, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2783986	journal	October 2007
Fast reconnection in high-Lundquist-number plasmas due to the plasmoid Instability Bhattacharjee, A.; Huang, Yi-Min; Yang, H. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 16, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3264103	journal	November 2009
A statistical model of magnetic islands in a current layer Fermo, R. L.; Drake, J. F.; Swisdak, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3286437	journal	January 2010
Phase diagram for magnetic reconnection in heliophysical, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas Ji, Hantao; Daughton, William Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3647505	journal	November 2011
Magnetic reconnection and stochastic plasmoid chains in high-Lundquist-number plasmas Loureiro, N. F.; Samtaney, R.; Schekochihin, A. A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3703318	journal	April 2012
In-plane electric fields in magnetic islands during collisionless magnetic reconnection Chen, Li-Jen; Daughton, William; Bhattacharjee, Amitava Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4767645	journal	November 2012
Experimental observation of 3-D, impulsive reconnection events in a laboratory plasma Dorfman, S.; Ji, H.; Yamada, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 21, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4862039	journal	January 2014
Multi-scale structures of turbulent magnetic reconnection Nakamura, T. K. M.; Nakamura, R.; Narita, Y. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 23, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4951025	journal	May 2016
A maximum entropy principle for inferring the distribution of 3D plasmoids Lingam, Manasvi; Comisso, Luca Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5020887	journal	January 2018
Energy transfer and electron energization in collisionless magnetic reconnection for different guide-field intensities Pucci, F.; Usami, S.; Ji, H. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5050992	journal	December 2018
A computational model for exploring particle acceleration during reconnection in macroscale systems Drake, J. F.; Arnold, H.; Swisdak, M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5058140	journal	January 2019
Evolution of Relativistic Plasmoid Chains in a Poynting-Dominated Plasma Takamoto, Makoto The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 775, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/775/1/50	journal	September 2013
Distribution of Plasmoids in Post-Coronal mass Ejection Current Sheets Guo, L. -J.; Bhattacharjee, A.; Huang, Y. -M. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 771, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/771/1/L14	journal	June 2013
Plasmoid statistics in relativistic magnetic reconnection Petropoulou, M.; Christie, I. M.; Sironi, L. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 475, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty033	journal	January 2018
Fast Magnetic Reconnection in the Plasmoid-Dominated Regime Uzdensky, D. A.; Loureiro, N. F.; Schekochihin, A. A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.235002	journal	December 2010
Distribution of Plasmoids in High-Lundquist-Number Magnetic Reconnection Huang, Yi-Min; Bhattacharjee, A. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.265002	journal	December 2012
Experimental Demonstration of the Collisionless Plasmoid Instability below the Ion Kinetic Scale during Magnetic Reconnection Olson, J.; Egedal, J.; Greess, S. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 116, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.255001	journal	June 2016
Mechanisms of Solar Flares Sweet, P. A. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.aa.07.090169.001053	journal	September 1969
Plasmoid-induced-reconnection and fractal reconnection Shibata, Kazunari; Tanuma, Syuniti Earth, Planets and Space, Vol. 53, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353258	journal	June 2001
The Interplay of Magnetically Dominated Turbulence and Magnetic Reconnection in Producing Nonthermal Particles Comisso, Luca; Sironi, Lorenzo The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 886, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab4c33	journal	November 2019
A new method to identify flux ropes in space plasmas Huang, Shiyong; Zhao, Pufan; He, Jiansen Annales Geophysicae, Vol. 36, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-1275-2018	journal	January 2018

Cited By (1)

Statistical properties of magnetic structures and energy dissipation during turbulent reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail Bergstedt, K.; Ji, H.; Jara-Almonte, J. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States) https://doi.org/10.11578/1814936	dataset	January 2020

Similar Records

Statistical properties of magnetic structures and energy dissipation during turbulent reconnection in the Earth's magnetotail

Dataset · Wed Oct 21 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · OSTI ID:1814936

Observation of a Knotted Electron Diffusion Region in Earth's Magnetotail Reconnection

Journal Article · Sun Oct 12 20:00:00 EDT 2025 · Geophysical Research Letters · OSTI ID:2999851

Three-dimensional computer modeling of dynamic reconnection in the magnetotail

Conference · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1982 · OSTI ID:5205715

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
magnetotail
plasmoids
reconnection
turbulence

Statistical Properties of Magnetic Structures and Energy Dissipation during Turbulent Reconnection in the Earth's Magnetotail

Citation Formats

References (72)

Cited By (1)

Similar Records

Related Subjects