Debye Length Structures and Slow Shocks in Earth's Reconnection Layer: Observations and Simulations

Details Debye Length Structures and Slow Shocks in Earth's Reconnection Layer: Observations and Simulations Debye Length Structures and Slow Shocks in Earth's Reconnection Layer: Observations and Simulations

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufmsm53b0426s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #SM53B-0426

Physics

7815 Electrostatic Structures, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection, 2712 Electric Fields (2411), 2724 Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers

Scientific paper

Frequently abrupt (7.5ms FWHM), strong (150mV/m) electrostatic structures are detected nearly perpendicular to B, near local density depletions in magnetopause current layers. These electrostatic structures have been suggested [Mozer, et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L15802, doi:10.1029/2004GL020062,2004] to have either electron inertial or electron Debye length scales. Using a broader suite of observational diagnostics, tests of Rankine-Hugoniot conservation laws, and new, full particle simulations, we demonstrate that these structures are unanticipated Debye length substructures (L ≃ 5λ De ) adjoining slow switch-off shock transition layers within the magnetopause proper. The electrostatic structures are found just inside the local density minimum and are perpendicular to the coplanarity plane of the adjacent slow shock layer. Electric layers of scale rλ De will cause the demagnetization of thermal electrons of temperature Te , by pushing down the threshold for the electron demagnetization to β e > Min(r2kTe/mec2,1) , thereby assisting topology change and the formation of Petschek slow shocks away from the separator where β e is usually much less than unity.

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