Electron scale structures and magnetic reconnection signatures in the turbulent magnetosheath

Yordanova, Emiliya; Vörös, Z.; Varsani, A.; Graham, Daniel B.; Norgren, Cecilia; Khotyaintsev, Yuri; Vaivads, A.; Eriksson, Elin; Nakamura, R.; Lindqvist, Per‐Arne; Marklund, Göran; Ergun, R. E.; Magnes, W.; Baumjohann, W.; Fischer, D.; Plaschke, Ferdinand; Narita, Yasuhito; Russell, C. T.; Strangeway, R. J.; Contel, O. Le; Pollock, C. J.; Torbert, R. B.; Giles, B. L.; Burch, J. L.; Avanov, L. A.; Dorelli, J.; Gershman, D. J.; Paterson, W. R.; Lavraud, B.; Saito, Y.

doi:10.1002/2016gl069191

Cited by 100 publications

(92 citation statements)

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“…Roberts et al, 2016;Perrone et al, 2016Perrone et al, , 2017. In addition, some results on very high-resolution data on electron scales have recently been provided by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission (Yordanova et al, 2016;Chasapis et al, 2017). Moreover, on the basis of kinetic simulations by Karimabadi et al (2014), one can suggest some interesting relationships of turbulent processes near shocks with reconnection processes.…”

Section: Magnetosheath Turbulencementioning

confidence: 99%

Intermittent turbulence in the heliosheath and the magnetosheath plasmas based on Voyager and THEMIS data

Macek

Wawrzaszek

Kucharuk

2018

Nonlin. Processes Geophys.

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Abstract. Turbulence is complex behavior that is ubiquitous in space, including the environments of the heliosphere and the magnetosphere. Our studies on solar wind turbulence including the heliosheath, and even at the heliospheric boundaries, also beyond the ecliptic plane, have shown that turbulence is intermittent in the entire heliosphere. As is known, turbulence in space plasmas often exhibits substantial deviations from normal Gaussian distributions. Therefore, we analyze the fluctuations of plasma and magnetic field parameters also in the magnetosheath behind the Earth's bow shock. Based on THEMIS observations, we have already suggested that turbulence behind the quasi-perpendicular shock is more intermittent with larger kurtosis than that behind the quasiparallel shocks. Following this study, we would like to present a detailed analysis of intermittent anisotropic turbulence in the magnetosheath depending on various characteristics of plasma behind the bow shock and now also near the magnetopause. In particular, for very high Alfvénic Mach numbers and high plasma beta we have clear non-Gaussian statistics in the directions perpendicular to the magnetic field. On the other hand, for directions parallel to this field the kurtosis is small and the plasma is close to equilibrium. However, the level of intermittency for the outgoing fluctuations seems to be similar to that for the ingoing fluctuations, which is consistent with approximate equipartition of energy between the oppositely propagating Alfvén waves. We hope that the difference in characteristic behavior of these fluctuations in various regions of space plasmas can help to detect some complex structures in space missions in the near future.

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Section: Magnetosheath Turbulencementioning

confidence: 99%

Intermittent turbulence in the heliosheath and the magnetosheath plasmas based on Voyager and THEMIS data

Macek

Wawrzaszek

Kucharuk

2018

Nonlin. Processes Geophys.

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“…Based on Cluster data, Retinò et al () observed many current sheets in the magnetosheath (shock downstream region) and reported reconnection. Yordanova et al () and Vörös et al () demonstrated signatures of ion and electron diffusion regions in magnetosheath current sheets observed by MMS. Based on MMS data, Phan et al () showed electron‐scale current sheets exhibiting reconnection in the magnetosheath, where only electron but no ion jets were detected, indicating that ions cannot respond to the small‐scale structures, and only electrons are involved in reconnection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Magnetic Reconnection in a Quasi‐Parallel Shock: Two‐Dimensional Local Particle‐in‐Cell Simulation

Bessho

Chen

Wang

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Magnetic reconnection in a quasi‐parallel bow shock is investigated with two‐dimensional local particle‐in‐cell simulations. In the shock transition and downstream regions, large amplitude magnetic fluctuations exist, and abundant current sheets form. In some current sheets, reconnection occurs, and ion‐scale and electron‐scale magnetic islands are generated. In electron‐scale island regions, only electron outflow jets are observed, producing a quadrupolar out‐of‐plane magnetic field pattern, while in ion‐scale islands, both ions and electrons are involved and energized in reconnection. Normalized reconnection rates are obtained to be between around 0.1 to 0.2, and particle acceleration signatures are seen in distribution functions.

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“…Elucidating the kinetic dynamics of thin current sheet equilibria is essential for understanding many fundamental plasma energization phenomena, such as the onset of magnetic reconnection, plasma turbulence, and wave instabilities (Harris, ; Priest, ; Daughton, ; Sundkvist et al, ). Detection of electron‐scale current sheets in Earth's magnetic environment has become possible with the high‐resolution instrumentation onboard the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft, which can resolve electron skin depth ( d e ) scale, filamentary currents narrower than the spacecraft separation (Phan et al, ; Phan et al, ; Yordanova et al, ; Wilder et al, ). Current sheets with thicknesses on the order of a few d e are often observed in association with the electron diffusion region (EDR) and separatrix regions of magnetic reconnection (Burch et al, ; Chen et al, ; Chen et al, ; Genestreti et al, ; Norgren et al, ; Torbert et al, ; Torbert et al, ; Wang et al, ; Webster et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MMS Measurements of the Vlasov Equation: Probing the Electron Pressure Divergence Within Thin Current Sheets

Shuster

Gershman

Chen

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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We investigate the kinetic structure of electron‐scale current sheets found in the vicinity of the magnetopause and embedded in the magnetosheath within the reconnection exhaust. A new technique for computing terms of the Vlasov equation using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) measurements is presented and applied to study phase space density gradients and the kinetic origins of the electron pressure divergence found within these current sheets. Crescent‐shaped structures in ∇⊥2fe give rise to bipolar and quadrupolar signatures in v·∇fe measured near the maximum ∇·Pe inside the current layers. The current density perpendicular to the magnetic field is strong (J⊥∼2 μA/m2), and the thickness of the current layers ranges from 3 to 5 electron inertial lengths. The electron flows supporting the current layers mainly result from the combination of E×B and diamagnetic drifts. We find nonzero J·E′ within the current sheets even though they are observed apart from typical diffusion region signatures.

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Electron scale structures and magnetic reconnection signatures in the turbulent magnetosheath

Cited by 100 publications

References 50 publications

Intermittent turbulence in the heliosheath and the magnetosheath plasmas based on Voyager and THEMIS data

Intermittent turbulence in the heliosheath and the magnetosheath plasmas based on Voyager and THEMIS data

Magnetic Reconnection in a Quasi‐Parallel Shock: Two‐Dimensional Local Particle‐in‐Cell Simulation

MMS Measurements of the Vlasov Equation: Probing the Electron Pressure Divergence Within Thin Current Sheets

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