In situ evidence for the structure of the magnetic null in a 3D reconnection event in the Earth's magnetotail

Details In situ evidence for the structure of the magnetic null in a 3D reconnection event in the Earth's magnetotail In situ evidence for the structure of the magnetic null in a 3D reconnection event in the Earth's magnetotail

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm43c..03x&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM43C-03

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 2744 Magnetotail, 7526 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7835), 7835 Magnetic Reconnection (2723, 7526)

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection is one of the most important processes in astrophysical, space and laboratory plasmas. Identifying the structure around the point at which the magnetic field lines break and subsequently reform, known as the magnetic null point, is crucial to improving our understanding reconnection. But owing to the inherently three-dimensional nature of this process, magnetic nulls are only detectable through measurements obtained simultaneously from at least four points in space. Using data collected by the four spacecraft of the Cluster constellation as they traversed a diffusion region in the Earth's magnetotail on 15 September, 2001, we report here the first in situ evidence for the structure of an isolated magnetic null. The results indicate that it has a positive-spiral structure whose spatial extent is of the same order as the local ion inertial length scale, suggesting that the Hall effect could play an important role in 3D reconnection dynamics.

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