Electron Diffusion Regions in Magnetotail Reconnection Under Varying Guide Fields
Abstract
Abstract Kinetic structures of electron diffusion regions (EDRs) under finite guide fields in magnetotail reconnection are reported. The EDRs with guide fields 0.14–0.5 (in unit of the reconnecting component) are detected by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. The key new features include the following: (1) cold inflowing electrons accelerated along the guide field and demagnetized at the magnetic field minimum while remaining a coherent population with a low perpendicular temperature, (2) wave fluctuations generating strong perpendicular electron flows followed by alternating parallel flows inside the reconnecting current sheet under an intermediate guide field, and (3) gyrophase bunched electrons with high parallel speeds leaving the X‐line region. The normalized reconnection rates for the three EDRs range from 0.05 to 0.3. The measurements reveal that finite guide fields introduce new mechanisms to break the electron frozen‐in condition.
- Authors:
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[1];
[2];
[3];
[4];
[1];
[1];
[2];
[5];
[6];
[7];
[8];
[1];
[9];
[10];
[11];
[5];
[12];
[13]
- NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USA
- NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USA, Department of Astronomy University of Maryland College Park MD USA
- Department of Physics and Technology University of Bergen Bergen Norway
- Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Sciences University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USA
- Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences University of California Los Angeles CA USA
- Southwest Research Institute San Antonio TX USA
- Southwest Research Institute San Antonio TX USA, Space Science Center University of New Hampshire Durham NH USA
- Space Science Center University of New Hampshire Durham NH USA
- Denali Scientific Healy AK USA
- Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Université de Toulouse (UPS), CNRS, CNES Toulouse France
- Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (UMR7648), CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique/Sorbonne Université/Univ. Paris‐Sud/Observatoire de Paris Paris France
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala Sweden
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm Sweden
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1560205
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1560207; OSTI ID: 1844382
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0016278
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Volume: 46 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES
Citation Formats
Chen, L. ‐J., Wang, S., Hesse, M., Ergun, R. E., Moore, T., Giles, B., Bessho, N., Russell, C., Burch, J., Torbert, R. B., Genestreti, K. J., Paterson, W., Pollock, C., Lavraud, B., Le Contel, O., Strangeway, R., Khotyaintsev, Yu V., and Lindqvist, P. ‐A.. Electron Diffusion Regions in Magnetotail Reconnection Under Varying Guide Fields. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1029/2019GL082393.
Chen, L. ‐J., Wang, S., Hesse, M., Ergun, R. E., Moore, T., Giles, B., Bessho, N., Russell, C., Burch, J., Torbert, R. B., Genestreti, K. J., Paterson, W., Pollock, C., Lavraud, B., Le Contel, O., Strangeway, R., Khotyaintsev, Yu V., & Lindqvist, P. ‐A.. Electron Diffusion Regions in Magnetotail Reconnection Under Varying Guide Fields. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082393
Chen, L. ‐J., Wang, S., Hesse, M., Ergun, R. E., Moore, T., Giles, B., Bessho, N., Russell, C., Burch, J., Torbert, R. B., Genestreti, K. J., Paterson, W., Pollock, C., Lavraud, B., Le Contel, O., Strangeway, R., Khotyaintsev, Yu V., and Lindqvist, P. ‐A.. Mon .
"Electron Diffusion Regions in Magnetotail Reconnection Under Varying Guide Fields". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082393.
@article{osti_1560205,
title = {Electron Diffusion Regions in Magnetotail Reconnection Under Varying Guide Fields},
author = {Chen, L. ‐J. and Wang, S. and Hesse, M. and Ergun, R. E. and Moore, T. and Giles, B. and Bessho, N. and Russell, C. and Burch, J. and Torbert, R. B. and Genestreti, K. J. and Paterson, W. and Pollock, C. and Lavraud, B. and Le Contel, O. and Strangeway, R. and Khotyaintsev, Yu V. and Lindqvist, P. ‐A.},
abstractNote = {Abstract Kinetic structures of electron diffusion regions (EDRs) under finite guide fields in magnetotail reconnection are reported. The EDRs with guide fields 0.14–0.5 (in unit of the reconnecting component) are detected by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft. The key new features include the following: (1) cold inflowing electrons accelerated along the guide field and demagnetized at the magnetic field minimum while remaining a coherent population with a low perpendicular temperature, (2) wave fluctuations generating strong perpendicular electron flows followed by alternating parallel flows inside the reconnecting current sheet under an intermediate guide field, and (3) gyrophase bunched electrons with high parallel speeds leaving the X‐line region. The normalized reconnection rates for the three EDRs range from 0.05 to 0.3. The measurements reveal that finite guide fields introduce new mechanisms to break the electron frozen‐in condition.},
doi = {10.1029/2019GL082393},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 12,
volume = 46,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {6}
}
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