Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001aps..dppgm1004s&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, 43rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics October 29 - November 2, 2001 Long Beach, C
Physics
Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
A brief overview of the inferred role of magnetic reconnection in the context of magnetized plasmas impinging on planetary obstacles will be given. These inferences are made concrete with direct experimental diagnoses of the separator and its environs. Calibrated ``images'' of the separator reveal the flow pattern of the electrons and ions and the Hall By pattern in the resolved collisionless reconnection layer. Tangential stress balance has been verified and reconnection rate measured. E_allel are measured. Electron fluid is shown to be pressure gradient and electric drifting near the separator revealing ambipolar Hall physics to be important in the phenomena. The electron plasma βe is observed to vary by a factor of 10^5 within the layer and is observed to become very large (~= 690) near the separator. The data illustrate a reconnection site with a negligible (< 1%) guide field. The scale length of the variation of the magnetic field at the separator crossing is measured to be c/ω_pe. Together with the high beta values, this result implies that the thermal electrons are unmagnetized at and near the separator. Evidence is also given that the electron distribution functions are non-gyrotropic and thus that the nabla \cdot Pe supports the electric field along the separator as forseen by Vasyliunas.
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