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Title: Magnetic Reconnection in a Quasi-Parallel Shock: Two-Dimensional Local Particle-in-Cell Simulation

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters

Magnetic reconnection in a quasi-parallel bow shock is investigated with two-dimensional local particle-in-cell simulations. In the shock transition and downstream regions, large amplitude magnetic fluctuations exist, and abundant current sheets form. In some current sheets, reconnection occurs, and ion-scale and electron-scale magnetic islands are generated. In electron-scale island regions, only electron outflow jets are observed, producing a quadrupolar out-of-plane magnetic field pattern, while in ion-scale islands, both ions and electrons are involved and energized in reconnection. Finally, normalized reconnection rates are obtained to be between around 0.1 to 0.2, and particle acceleration signatures are seen in distribution functions.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Research Council of Norway; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016278; AGS-1619584; AGS-1552142; 80NSSC18K1369; 223252/F50
OSTI ID:
1612464
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1558812
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 16; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 29 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Evidence of Magnetic Nulls in the Reconnection at Bow Shock journal September 2019
Influence of parallel shearing flow on the switch-off effect of magnetic reconnection journal December 2019

Figures / Tables (4)