Wind's Encounter With the Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Diffusion Region in the Earth's Magnetic Tail

Details Wind's Encounter With the Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Diffusion Region in the Earth's Magnetic Tail Wind's Encounter With the Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Diffusion Region in the Earth's Magnetic Tail

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufmsm42c..01o&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #SM42C-01

Physics

2740 Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, 2744 Magnetotail, 2764 Plasma Sheet, 7807 Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration, 7835 Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into kinetic energy in the form of bi-directional plasma jets. The process is initiated in a narrow source region, the diffusion region. Previous observations have been restricted to the detection of the consequences of reconnection, such as plasma jets, outside the diffusion region. According to theory, both resistive and collisionless processes can initiate reconnection. One of the key predicted signatures of collisionless reconnection is the separation between ions and electrons in the diffusion region. This separation creates a quadrupolar system of Hall currents and an associated set of Hall magnetic fields. Here we report a fortuitous event where the Wind spacecraft encountered an active reconnection diffusion region at the origin of bi-directional jets in the Earth's magnetotail where it detected Hall magnetic field signatures as well as electron beams associated with the Hall current. These observations provide the ultimate evidence for the existence of a magnetotail reconnection regime where collisionless rather than resistive mechanisms dominate; a regime which, according to recent theoretical studies, leads to much faster reconnection than the often assumed resistive regime.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Wind's Encounter With the Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Diffusion Region in the Earth's Magnetic Tail does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Wind's Encounter With the Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Diffusion Region in the Earth's Magnetic Tail, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Wind's Encounter With the Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection Diffusion Region in the Earth's Magnetic Tail will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1385433