LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Observations of Electron‐Only Magnetic Reconnection Associated With Macroscopic Magnetic Flux Ropes

Photo by ninjason from unsplash

We report a Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission observation of magnetic reconnection occurring at the edge of a large‐scale magnetic flux rope (MFR), the cross‐section of which was about 2 RE.… Click to show full abstract

We report a Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission observation of magnetic reconnection occurring at the edge of a large‐scale magnetic flux rope (MFR), the cross‐section of which was about 2 RE. The MFR was observed at the duskside in the Earth's magnetotail and was highly oblique with its axis approximately along the XGSM direction. We find an electron‐scale current sheet near the edge of this MFR. The Hall magnetic and electric field, super‐Alfvénic electron outflow, parallel electric field, and positive energy dissipation were observed associated with the current sheet, which indicates that MMS detected a reconnecting current sheet with a large guide field. Interestingly, ions were not coupled in this reconnection, akin to the electron‐only reconnection observed in the turbulent magnetosheath. We further find that the electron‐only reconnection is commonly associated with a macroscopic MFR. This result will shed new light on understanding the multiscale coupling associated with an MFR in space plasmas.

Keywords: magnetic reconnection; magnetic flux; mfr; associated macroscopic; reconnection

Journal Title: Geophysical Research Letters
Year Published: 2020

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.