Multiscale Anisotropy and Instabilities in a Thin Electron Current Sheet: Simulation Results and Measurement Recommendations

Details Multiscale Anisotropy and Instabilities in a Thin Electron Current Sheet: Simulation Results and Measurement Recommendations Multiscale Anisotropy and Instabilities in a Thin Electron Current Sheet: Simulation Results and Measurement Recommendations

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm51c1833k&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM51C-1833

Physics

[2723] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetic Reconnection, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [2753] Magnetospheric Physics / Numerical Modeling

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental plasma process involving nonlinear interactions of vastly separated spatial scales, ranging from the large-scale magnetic field geometry enabling the formation of the global X-line, to the microscopic plasma properties at ion and electron gyroscales controlling fast energy conversion of the reconnecting flux and providing physical conditions for particle acceleration and heating. In this talk, we investigate simulation outputs from a 3-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell code (Singh et al., 2006) with the objective to understand magnetic signatures of the transient multiscale dynamics in the electron diffusion region. The simulation reproduces the formation of a thin embedded electron current layer in a reversed magnetic field configuration, followed the development of electron tearing mode and an explosive electrostatic instability leading to reconnection. We use higher-order anisotropic structure function (SF) analysis as a tool to quantify topological changes of the magnetic field inside and outside of the simulated thin electron current layer. The results show temporal evolution of the longitudinal and transverse intermittency indices (net deviation of the SF exponents form the fully developed turbulent state) suggesting a formation of anisotropic magnetic field structures during the tearing mode growth. This anisotropy decreases once the instability becomes explosive. The estimated growth time of 60-70 electron plasma periods of the transverse SF index is in an agreement with the theoretical prediction for the electron tearing mode instability. The results obtained shed new light on the forces and interactions governing time evolution of the multiscale magnetic field topology accompanying tearing mode growth at different stages of the initial instability, and provide important clues for monitoring reconnection onset events using multiscale in situ measurements conducted at various distances from the neutral sheet.

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