[1] Measurements from the Cluster spacecraft of electric fields, magnetic fields, and ions are used to study the structure and dynamics of the reconnection region in the tail at distances of $18 R E near 22.4 MLT on 1 October 2001. This paper focuses on measurements of the large amplitude normal component of the electric field observed in the ion decoupling region near the reconnection x-line, the structure of the associated potential drops across the current sheet, and the role of the electrostatic potential structure in the ballistic acceleration of ions across the current sheet. The thinnest current sheet observed during this interval was bifurcated into a pair of current sheets and the measured width of the individual current sheet was 60-100 km (3-5 c/w pe ). Coinciding with the pair of thin current sheets is a large-amplitude (±60 mV/m) bipolar electric field structure directed normal to the current sheets toward the midplane of the plasma sheet. The potential drop between the outer boundary of the thin current sheet and the neutral sheet due to this electric field is 4-6 kV. This electric field structure produces a 4-6 kV electric potential well centered on the separatrix region. Measured H + velocity space distributions obtained inside the current layers provide evidence that the H + fluids from the northern and southern tail lobes are accelerated into the potential well, producing a pair of counterstreaming, monoenergetic H + beams. These beams are directed within 20 degrees of the normal direction with energies of 4-6 keV. The data also suggest there is ballistic acceleration of O + in a similar larger-scale potential well of 10-30 kV spatially coinciding with the larger scale size ($1000-3000 km) portions of current sheet surrounding the thin current sheet. Distribution functions show counterstreaming O + populations with energies of $20 keV accelerated along the average normal direction within this large-scale potential structure. The normal component of the electric field in the thin current sheet layer is large enough to drive an E Â B drift of the electrons $10,000 km/s (0.25 x electron Alfven velocity), which can account for the magnitude of the cross-tail current associated with the thin current sheet.Citation: Wygant, J. R., et al. (2005), Cluster observations of an intense normal component of the electric field at a thin reconnecting current sheet in the tail and its role in the shock-like acceleration of the ion fluid into the separatrix region,

[1] The ionospheric feedback instability has been invoked as a possible mechanism for the formation of narrow auroral arcs. This instability can excite eigenmodes of both field line resonances and the ionospheric Alfvén resonator, producing narrow-scale structures. Although the basic dispersion relation of this instability has been discussed for both of these cases, the energetics of this instability has not been discussed quantitatively and questions remain as to the nonlinear evolution of this instability. The free energy for this instability comes from the reduction of Joule heating due to the preexisting convection caused by the self-consistent changes in ionization and conductivity due to Alfvénic perturbations on the ionosphere. In an active ionosphere, narrow-scale Alfvén waves can be overreflected; i.e., the reflected wave can have a larger amplitude than the incident wave, with the extra energy coming from a local reduction of Joule heating. Recombination produces a damping of this instability, particularly for high background conductivity, indicating that this instability operates best in a dark background ionosphere. This feedback interaction produces narrow-scale currents when strong gradients in the conductivity are produced, and effects from parallel resistivity or possibly kinetic effects will become important in its evolution. Theoretical constraints on low-spatial resolution observations of the energy dissipated by precipitation as opposed to Joule heating will be discussed.

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[1] Recent observations have indicated that in addition to the classical ''inverted-V'' type electron acceleration, auroral electrons often have a field-aligned distribution that is broad in energy and sometimes shows time dispersion indicating acceleration at various altitudes up the field line. Such acceleration is not consistent with a purely electrostatic potential drop and suggests a wave heating of auroral electrons. Alfvén waves have been observed on auroral field lines carrying sufficient Poynting flux to provide energy for such acceleration. Calculations based on the linear kinetic theory of Alfvén waves indicate that Landau damping of these waves can efficiently convert this Poynting flux into field-aligned acceleration of electrons. At high altitudes along auroral field lines that map into the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL), the plasma gradients are relatively weak and the local kinetic theory can describe this wave-particle interaction. At lower altitudes, the gradient in the Alfvén speed becomes significant, and a nonlocal description must be used. A nonlocal theory based on a simplified model of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator (IAR) is presented. For a given field-aligned current (FAC), the efficiency of the wave-particle interaction increases with the ratio of the thermal velocity of the electrons to the Alfvén speed at high altitudes. These calculations indicate that wave acceleration of electrons should occur at and above the altitude where the quasi-static potential drops form.

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