O+ distributions near the reconnection X-line in the Earth's Magnetotail. CLUSTER observations.

Details O+ distributions near the reconnection X-line in the Earth's Magnetotail. CLUSTER observations. O+ distributions near the reconnection X-line in the Earth's Magnetotail. CLUSTER observations.

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsm31b1738m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SM31B-1738

Physics

2723 Magnetic Reconnection (7526, 7835), 2744 Magnetotail, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2788 Magnetic Storms And Substorms (7954)

Scientific paper

The CLUSTER mission has provided a considerable number of in-situ observations of the formation of an X- line in the mid-tail region of the Earth's magnetotail shedding light on the physical processes underlying time- dependent collisionless reconnection during quiet as well as storm conditions. From these observations it has become evident that there are time periods where heavy ions (mainly O+ of ionospheric origin), in the vicinity of thin current sheets, can be the dominant contributor to the plasma pressure. A first step in understanding the role of these O+ ions in the reconnection process requires the identification of O+ distributions in the different regions (e.g. inflow, outflow, separatrix) of the ion and electron diffusion regions. Here we present a database of the observed O+ distributions from ~40 encounters of the CLUSTER spacecraft within the vicinity of an X-line in the near Earth magnetotail. The types of the observed distributions are classified as a function of the O+ content of the plasma sheet (i.e. of geomagnetic activity), the current sheet thickness and the region of ion diffusion region. The CLUSTER spacecraft separation differed over the years, covering distances from ~2000 km to ~500 km. These different separations will provide a great opportunity to estimate the scale lengths over which the various distributions appear. Creation of such a database will assist with future comparisons with simulations.

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