Magnetic Reconnection X-Line Retreat Associated with Dipolarization of the Earth's Magnetosphere

Details Magnetic Reconnection X-Line Retreat Associated with Dipolarization of the Earth's Magnetosphere Magnetic Reconnection X-Line Retreat Associated with Dipolarization of the Earth's Magnetosphere

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsm54a..02o&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SM54A-02

Physics

Plasma Physics

[2740] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, [2744] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetotail, [2790] Magnetospheric Physics / Substorms, [7835] Space Plasma Physics / Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

Magnetic reconnection is the key process of plasma transport in the Earth's magnetotail. The `X-line' where magnetic field lines reconnect often moves away from the Earth. However, the precise cause of the X-line motion remains unclear. Here we present data from five THEMIS probes positioned along the Sun-Earth line and show that a tailward retreat motion of the X-line (detected by the outermost probe P1) occurred when a dipolarization of the inner magnetosphere turned into its recovery phase (observed by the inner probes P3, P4 and P5 as a pressure decrease). At an intermediate location (P2), the total pressure was increasing. These observations are consistent with the idea that the pressure increase in the inner magnetosphere eventually causes the X-line to retreat tailward. Because of the large scale pressure gradient along the Sun-Earth line, we suggest that magnetotail reconnection may become asymmetric in the outflow direction.

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