A Cluster measurement of fast magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail

Details A Cluster measurement of fast magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail A Cluster measurement of fast magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail

Jan 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007georl..3401101x&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 34, Issue 1, CiteID L01101

Physics

Plasma Physics

16

Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetotail, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, Space Plasma Physics: Kinetic And Mhd Theory

Scientific paper

Fast reconnection is crucial to magnetospheric substorms, solar and stellar flares and fusion plasmas. Ultimate confirmation of fast reconnection must be achieved by multi-spacecraft detections of the reconnection rate itself and associated dimensions of the diffusion region. Here we report a multi-spacecraft measurement of fast reconnection rate γ rec ~ V in ~ (0.07-0.15)V A based on directly measurements of the plasma flow into the diffusion region, where V in is the speed of reconnecting flux and V A the characteristic Alfvén speed. It falls in the range of ~(0.03-0.2)V A predicted in steady state reconnection simulation. The characteristic sizes for the diffusion region of the width L z ~ 0.9 d i (= 460 km) and the length L x ~ (3.3-5.1)d i (= 1680-2597 km) are measured as well. The length of the diffusion region L x is determined for the first time based on the in situ observations. Furthermore, other features detected during the event also match the previous observation and simulation results.

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