Spacecraft Observations of Oblique Electron Beams Breaking the Frozen-In Law During Asymmetric Reconnection
Journal Article
·
· Physical Review Letters
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- Southwest Research Inst. (SwRI), San Antonio, TX (United States)
- Univ. of Toulouse (France). Inst. of Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States). Heliophysics Science Division
Fully kinetic simulations of asymmetric magnetic reconnection reveal the presence of magnetic-field-aligned beams of electrons flowing toward the topological magnetic x line. Within the ~ 6de electron-diffusion region, the beams become oblique to the local magnetic field, providing a unique signature of the electron-diffusion region where the electron frozen-in law is broken. These numerical predictions are confirmed by in situ Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft observations during asymmetric reconnection at Earth’s dayside magnetopause.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 1441327
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-18-20045
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 120; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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