A Study of Slow-mode Shocks in the Near-Earth Magnetotail with MMS Observations and Hybrid Simulations
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- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Univ. of Tokyo (Japan)
- Nagoya Univ. (Japan)
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA), Sagamihara, Kanagawa (Japan). Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Denali Scientific, Fairbanks, AK (United States)
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States); Univ. of Texas at San Antonio, TX (United States)
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
- Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States)
The structure of the magnetic reconnection boundary, particularly the presence of slow-mode shocks in the near-Earth magnetotail was studied by using magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) observations and 2.5D hybrid simulations. A total of 51 crossings of MMS from 2017 to 2021 were analyzed. We found that the detection percentage of slow-mode shocks in the near-Earth magnetotail is 41%–55%. Previous studies have only reported one slow-mode shock event in the near-Earth magnetotail and a slow-mode shock detection percentage of 10% or lower in the mid-to-distant magnetotail. It was observed that if the high-energy beam region data is removed from the slow-mode shock downstream observations then the detection of slow-mode shocks reduces, implying that the kinetic effects play an important role in the detection of slow-mode shocks. For the crossings where the interface was not identified as a slow-mode shock, it was found that the turbulence in those crossings can change the mass flux values and disrupt the detection of slow-mode shock. However, the macroscopic slow-mode shock-like structure stably exists around the magnetic reconnection interface, as most of the conditions for slow-mode shocks were satisfied. This result suggests that slow-mode shocks are a general feature of magnetic reconnection geometry. We find that the lack of detection of slow-mode shocks in previous observations and simulations can be explained by taking into account the kinetic structure of slow-mode shocks and the presence of turbulence.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001
- OSTI ID:
- 2530364
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--24-22043
- Journal Information:
- The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 977; ISSN 0004-637X
- Publisher:
- IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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