Intermittent Electron-only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-magnetospheres

Stanier, A.; Chen, L. J.; Le, A.; Halekas, J.; Sawyer, R.

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad2774

Title: Intermittent Electron-only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-magnetospheres

Journal Article · 21 February 2024 · The Astrophysical Journal. Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad2774 · OSTI ID:2310392

^[1];

^[2];

^[1];

^[3];

^[3]

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA (United States)

Lunar crustal magnetic anomalies (LCMA) are sub-ion-gyroradius structures that have been shown to stand off the solar wind (SW) plasma from the Moon’s surface, forming shock-like discontinuities and reflecting incident SW protons. In this Letter, the results of high-resolution, 2D fully kinetic simulations show a bursty electron-only magnetic reconnection in the SW-LCMA interaction region, characterized by the quasiperiodic formation and ejection of magnetic islands and strong parallel electron flows along the X-point separator lines. The islands are observed to modify the magnetic pressure pileup and Hall electric field above the LCMA, leading to sharp increases in reflected protons that drive electromagnetic fluctuations downstream and short distances upstream in the SW.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Grant/Contract Number:: 89233218CNA000001; NAS5-02099; 80NSSC20M0022; FWPLANLE7C5

OSTI ID:: 2310392

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2426724

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-23-31465; TRN: US2503652

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal. Letters, Vol. 963, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-8205

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (39)

Hybrid-Kinetic Approach: Massless Electrons Winske, Dan; Karimabadi, Homa; Le, Ari Yitzchak Space and Astrophysical Plasma Simulation https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11870-8_3	book	January 2023
Minimagnetospheres above the Lunar Surface and the Formation of Lunar Swirls Bamford, R. A.; Kellett, B.; Bradford, W. J. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.081101	journal	August 2012
Magnetism and the interior of the Moon Dyal, Palmer; Parkin, Curtis W.; Daily, William D. Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 12, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/RG012i004p00568	journal	January 1974
Magnetic Reconnection on Dayside Crustal Magnetic Fields at Mars: MAVEN Observations Harada, Y.; Halekas, J. S.; DiBraccio, G. A. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/2018GL077281	journal	May 2018
Effects of protons reflected by lunar crustal magnetic fields on the global lunar plasma environment Fatemi, Shahab; Holmström, Mats; Futaana, Yoshifumi Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 119, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JA019900	journal	August 2014
Satellite measurements of the moon's magnetic field: A preliminary report Coleman, Paul J.; Schubert, G.; Russell, C. T. The Moon, Vol. 4, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00562008	journal	January 1972
Formation of collisionless shocks in magnetized plasma interaction with kinetic-scale obstacles Cruz, F.; Alves, E. P.; Bamford, R. A. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4975310	journal	February 2017
Magnetic island dynamics in magnetic reconnection in UTST experiments Kamio, S.; Inomoto, M.; Yamasaki, K. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 25, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5006092	journal	January 2018
Solar‐wind proton access deep into the near‐Moon wake Nishino, M. N.; Fujimoto, M.; Maezawa, K. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL039444	journal	August 2009
Global spherical harmonic models of the internal magnetic field of the Moon based on sequential and coestimation approaches Purucker, Michael E.; Nicholas, Joseph B. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115, Issue E12 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JE003650	journal	January 2010
Hybrid simulation of the interaction of solar wind protons with a concentrated lunar magnetic anomaly Giacalone, J.; Hood, L. L. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JA020938	journal	June 2015
Moon‐related nonthermal ions observed by Nozomi: Species, sources, and generation mechanisms Futaana, Yoshifumi; Machida, Shinobu; Saito, Yoshifumi Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 108, Issue A1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JA009366	journal	January 2003
Three‐dimensional Hall MHD simulation of lunar minimagnetosphere: General characteristics and comparison with Chang'E‐2 observations Xie, Lianghai; Li, Lei; Zhang, Yiteng Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JA021647	journal	August 2015
Reiner Gamma albedo features reproduced by modeling solar wind standoff Deca, Jan; Divin, Andrey; Lue, Charles Communications Physics, Vol. 1, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-018-0012-9	journal	April 2018
Magnetic reconnection in the era of exascale computing and multiscale experiments Ji, Hantao; Daughton, William; Jara-Almonte, Jonathan Nature Reviews Physics, Vol. 4, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00419-x	journal	February 2022
Diamagnetic Solar-Wind Cavity Discovered behind Moon Colburn, D. S.; Currie, R. G.; Mihalov, J. D. Science, Vol. 158, Issue 3804 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.158.3804.1040	journal	November 1967
2.5-D fluid simulations of the solar wind interacting with multiple dipoles on the surface of the Moon: MULTI-DIPOLE MINI-MAGNETOSPHERES Harnett, Erika M.; Winglee, Robert M. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 108, Issue A2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JA009617	journal	February 2003
Distribution and solar wind control of compressional solar wind‐magnetic anomaly interactions observed at the Moon by ARTEMIS Halekas, J. S.; Poppe, A. R.; Lue, C. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 122, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA023931	journal	June 2017
Lunar Surface Magnetic Fields and Their Interaction with the Solar Wind: Results from Lunar Prospector Lin, R. P. Science, Vol. 281, Issue 5382 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.281.5382.1480	journal	September 1998
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
Ultrahigh performance three-dimensional electromagnetic relativistic kinetic plasma simulation Bowers, K. J.; Albright, B. J.; Yin, L. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 15, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2840133	journal	May 2008
The lunar wake current systems Fatemi, S.; Holmström, M.; Futaana, Y. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 40, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL054635	journal	January 2013
On the source of lunar limb compressions Russell, C. T.; Lichtenstein, B. R. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 80, Issue 34 https://doi.org/10.1029/JA080i034p04700	journal	December 1975
Electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell Simulations of the Solar Wind Interaction with Lunar Magnetic Anomalies Deca, J.; Divin, A.; Lapenta, G. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.151102	journal	April 2014
Reflected Protons in the Lunar Wake and Their Effects on Wake Potentials Xu, Shaosui; Poppe, Andrew R.; Halekas, Jasper S. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JA028154	journal	June 2020
Electron magnetic reconnection without ion coupling in Earth’s turbulent magnetosheath Phan, T. D.; Eastwood, J. P.; Shay, M. A. Nature, Vol. 557, Issue 7704 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0091-5	journal	May 2018
Evidence for collisionless magnetic reconnection at Mars Eastwood, J. P.; Brain, D. A.; Halekas, J. S. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 35, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL032289	journal	January 2008
Numerical solution of initial boundary value problems involving maxwell's equations in isotropic media IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 14, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.1966.1138693	journal	May 1966
Does Magnetic Reconnection Occur in the Near Lunar Surface Environment? Sawyer, R. P.; Halekas, J. S.; Bonnell, J. W. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 50, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104733	journal	August 2023
In situ observations of reconnection Hall magnetic fields at Mars: Evidence for ion diffusion region encounters Halekas, J. S.; Eastwood, J. P.; Brain, D. A. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 114, Issue A11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JA014544	journal	November 2009
3d pic Simulations of Collisionless Shocks at Lunar Magnetic Anomalies and Their role in Forming Lunar Swirls Bamford, R. A.; Alves, E. P.; Cruz, F. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 830, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/146	journal	October 2016
Evidence for small-scale collisionless shocks at the Moon from ARTEMIS: Moon Shocks Halekas, J. S.; Poppe, A. R.; McFadden, J. P. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL061973	journal	November 2014
Laboratory Observation of Resistive Electron Tearing in a Two-Fluid Reconnecting Current Sheet Jara-Almonte, Jonathan; Ji, Hantao; Yamada, Masaaki Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.095001	journal	August 2016
VPIC 2.0: Next Generation Particle-in-Cell Simulations Bird, Robert; Tan, Nigel; Luedtke, Scott V. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems https://doi.org/10.1109/TPDS.2021.3084795	journal	January 2021
Lunar Magnetic Anomalies and Surface Optical Properties Hood, L. L.; Schubert, G. Science, Vol. 208, Issue 4439 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.208.4439.49	journal	April 1980
Strong influence of lunar crustal fields on the solar wind flow Lue, Charles; Futaana, Yoshifumi; Barabash, Stas Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL046215	journal	February 2011
Laser-driven, ion-scale magnetospheres in laboratory plasmas. I. Experimental platform and first results Schaeffer, D. B.; Cruz, F. D.; Dorst, R. S. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 29, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0084353	journal	April 2022
Explorer 35 plasma measurements in the vicinity of the Moon Lyon, E. F.; Bridge, H. S.; Binsack, J. H. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 72, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ072i023p06113	journal	December 1967
General mechanism and dynamics of the solar wind interaction with lunar magnetic anomalies from 3‐D particle‐in‐cell simulations Deca, Jan; Divin, Andrey; Lembège, Bertrand Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JA021070	journal	August 2015

Similar Records

Intermittent Electron-Only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-Magnetospheres

Technical Report · 2024 · OSTI ID:2377699

Stanier, Adam John; Chen, Li Jen; Le, Ari Yitzchak; +2 more

Does Magnetic Reconnection Occur in the Near Lunar Surface Environment?

Journal Article · 2023 · Geophysical Research Letters · OSTI ID:2441384

Sawyer, R. P.; Halekas, J. S.; Bonnell, J. W.; +5 more

Laboratory Study of Magnetic Reconnection in Lunar-relevant Mini-magnetospheres

Journal Article · 2024 · The Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:2395987

Rovige, Lucas; Cruz, Filipe D.; Dorst, Robert S.; +7 more

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Heliospheric and Magnetospheric Physics
The Moon
Lunar magnetic fields
Planetary bow shocks
Space plasmas
Solar wind
Solar magnetic reconnection

Title: Intermittent Electron-only Reconnection at Lunar Mini-magnetospheres

Citation Formats

References (39)

Similar Records

Related Subjects