Title: Upper-Hybrid Waves Driven by Meandering Electrons Around Magnetic Reconnection X Line

Abstract

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process in collisionless space plasma environment, and plasma waves relevant to the kinetic interactions can have a significant impact on the multiscale behavior of reconnection. Here, we present Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations during an encounter of an X line of symmetric magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail. The X line is characterized by reversals of ion and electron jets and electromagnetic fields, agyrotropic electron velocity distribution functions (VDFs), and an electron-scale current sheet. MMS observe large-amplitude nonlinear upper-hybrid (UH) waves on both sides of the neutral line, and the wave amplitudes have highly localized distribution along the normal direction. Here, the inbound meandering electrons drive the UH waves, releasing the free energy stored from the reconnection electric field along the meandering trajectories. The interaction between the meandering electrons and the UH waves may modify the balance of the reconnection electric field around the X line.

Authors:

Li, W.‐Y.  ^[1];

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Khotyaintsev, Yu V.  ^[2];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-5550-3113"

Tang, B. ‐B.  ^[3];

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Graham, D. B.  ^[2];

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Norgren, C.  ^[4];

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Vaivads, A.  ^[5];

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André, M.  ^[2];

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Le, A.  ^[6];

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Egedal, J.  ^[7];

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Dokgo, K.  ^[8];

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Fujimoto, K.  ^[9];

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He, J. ‐S. ^[10]; Burch, J. L.  ^[8];

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Lindqvist, P.‐A.  ^[5];

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Ergun, R. E.  ^[11];

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Torbert, R. B.  ^[12];

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Le Contel, O.  ^[13];

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Gershman, D. J.  ^[14];

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Giles, B. L.  ^[15];

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Lavraud, B.  ^[16]

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more »; Fuselier, S.  ^[17];

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Plaschke, F.  ^[18];

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Russell, C. T.  ^[19];

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Guo, X. ‐C. ^[3]; Lu, Q. ‐M.  ^[20];

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Wang, C.  ^[21]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China); Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Uppsala (Sweden)
2. Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Uppsala (Sweden)
3. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
4. Univ. of Bergen (Norway)
5. KTH Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden)
6. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
7. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
8. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States)
9. Beihang Univ., Beijing (China)
10. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
11. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
12. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
13. Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau (France); Sorbonne Univ., Paris (France); Univ. Paris-Sud, Orsay (France); Observatoire de Paris (France)
14. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
15. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
16. Univ. of Toulouse (France); Univ. Bordeaux (France)
17. Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX (United States); Univ. of Texas at San Antonio, TX (United States)
18. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz (Austria)
19. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
20. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
21. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)

Publication Date:

Wed Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 2021

Research Org.:

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); NNSFC; Chinese Academy of Sciences

OSTI Identifier:

1868292

Report Number(s):

LA-UR-21-27282
Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276

Grant/Contract Number:  

89233218CNA000001; 41731070; 41974170; 41974196; 41874189; QYZDJSSW-JSC028; XDA15052500; XDA17010301; XDB41000000

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 48; Journal Issue: 16; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

58 GEOSCIENCES