Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm21a1565c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM21A-1565
Physics
[2712] Magnetospheric Physics / Electric Fields, [2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [2748] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail Boundary Layers
Scientific paper
The electron characteristics around the magnetic nulls in 3D reconnection is by far not known. Data from the multi-spacecraft mission Cluster are used to investigate the distinct electron regions in a 3D magnetotail reconnection event reported by Xiao et al. [Nature Phys., 2006]. During a several-minute interval encompassing the time when an isolated magnetic null was reported, about 15 crossings of the current sheet were registered by the four spacecraft. The crossings revealed two distinct states, one of the reconnection exhaust and one of the quiet-time current-sheet characteristics, interweaving each other. The reported null occurred when the three spacecraft north of the current sheet were in the quiet current sheet. A few seconds prior to the occurrence of the reported null, a transition from the exhaust to quiet current sheet (both with a full width about 1-2 ion skin depths) was registered, first by the spacecraft displaced the most in the out-of-plane direction, and soon followed by other spacecraft. Around the time of the magnetic null, a bipolar Bz (in GSM) pulse (termed “the spine flux tube of the 3D null”) was observed, and the pulse ended at the transition from the quiet current sheet back to the reconnection exhaust. The electric field Ex also exhibits a bipolar feature in phase with the bipolar Bz. The electron density peaks near the two edges of the bipolar Bz structure. Large-amplitude electric field fluctuations which characterize magnetic separatrices are found not only at the transition between the inflow and exhaust, but also the transition between the exhaust and the quiet current sheet. The interweaving of the two current-sheet states indicates that this reconnection event is not described by 2D current-sheet reconnection. 3D fully kinetic simulations are required to answer whether quiet-current-sheet electrons can host magnetic nulls and their spine flux tubes, and establish the plasma and field properties around the nulls and the spine flux tubes.
Chen Leon L.
Connick D.
Lefebvre Bertrand
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