Multi-scale Observations of the Near-Earth Flow Braking Region

Details Multi-scale Observations of the Near-Earth Flow Braking Region Multi-scale Observations of the Near-Earth Flow Braking Region

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm52a..02z&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM52A-02

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [2748] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail Boundary Layers, [7851] Space Plasma Physics / Shock Waves

Scientific paper

The flow braking region in the near-Earth magnetotail is a key region where large-scale fast flows propagating earthward brake/divert upon interaction with the ambient plasma/dipolar magnetic field, leading to mayor energy conversion down to the smallest scales. Despite of its importance, the key physical processes in the braking region are yet poorly understood due to the scarcity of in-situ measurements and most of our understanding comes from numerical simulations. Here we present novel Cluster observations in the near-Earth plasma sheet around Xgsm~ -10 Re when two spacecraft are separated by ~30 km while being apart ~10000 km from the others, corresponding to few electron and many ion gyroradii respectively. We find that the braking of fast flows at MHD scales leads to important small-scale processes such as current sheet instabilities and formation of thin current layers that are associated to substantial particle acceleration. We show the first evidence of kinetic shocklets that are thought to be produced by the steepening of slow-mode magnetosonic wave packets. We discuss the importance of our measurements for future multi-scale spacecraft missions. We also discuss the possible relevance of our observations for solar corona and other astrophysical environments.

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