Observations of the Electron Jet Generated by Secondary Reconnection in the Terrestrial Magnetotail

Huang, Suming; Jiang, K.; Yuan, Zhigang; Sahraoui, Fouad; He, L. H.; Zhou, Mingyue; Fu, H. S.; Deng, Xiaohua; He, Jiansen; Cao, Dairong; Yu, Xiongdong; Wang, D. D.; Burch, J. L.; Pollock, C. J.; Torbert, R. B.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aacd4c

Cited by 54 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The strong current is primarily carried by electrons, and thus, the energy dissipation in this event is driven by electrons. The magnitude of energy dissipation inside the electron jet (J · E′ ≈ −2 nW/m 3 ) is even stronger than that at dipolarization fronts, demonstrating the importance of the electron jet in converting/dissipating energy in the Earth's magnetotail, as suggested recently by Huang et al (2018). Both the current filaments and energy dissipation appear at the O-line structure, well supporting the proposition of Fu et al (2017).…”

Section: Summary and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Electron‐Driven Dissipation in a Tailward Flow Burst

Chen

Liu

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Traditionally, the magnetotail flow burst outside the diffusion region is known to carry ions and electrons together (Vi = Ve), with the frozen‐in condition well satisfied (E + Ve × B = 0). Such picture, however, may not be true, based on our analyses of the high‐resolution MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale mission) data. We find that inside the flow burst the electrons and ions can be decoupled (Ve ≠ Vi), with the electron speed 5 times larger than the ion speed. Such super‐Alfvenic electron jet, having scale of 10 di (ion inertial length) in XGSM direction, is associated with electron demagnetization (E + Ve × B ≠ 0), electron agyrotropy (crescent distribution), and O‐line magnetic topology but not associated with the flow reversal and X‐line topology; it can cause strong energy dissipation and electron heating. We quantitatively analyze the dissipation and find that it is primarily attributed to lower hybrid drift waves. These results emphasize the non‐MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) behaviors of magnetotail flow bursts and the role of lower hybrid drift waves in dissipating energies.

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Section: Summary and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Electron‐Driven Dissipation in a Tailward Flow Burst

Chen

Liu

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…Similar temperature anisotropy and bidirectional electron velocity distributions have been found in the inflow region of the diffusion region (Chen et al, 2009;Huang et al, 2018;Zhou et al, 2019). It is suggested that acceleration by parallel electric field causes the temperature anisotropy in the inflow region (Egedal et al, 2010).…”

Section: Journal Of Geophysical Research: Space Physicssupporting

confidence: 66%

Sub‐ion‐scale Dynamics of the Ion Diffusion Region in the Magnetotail: MMS Observations

et al. 2019

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This paper reports magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) observations of the sub‐ion‐scale dynamics within the ion diffusion region (IDR) in the Earth's magnetotail. MMS crossed the IDR from the southern to the northern hemisphere, at about two ion inertial length earthward of the X line with a small guide field. Electrons were anisotropic in the inflow region of the IDR and turned into isotropic within the IDR. The isotropization of the electrons was probably due to the pitch angle scattering in highly curved magnetic field lines. We suggest that the thickness of the electron isotropic region strongly depends on the horizontal distance to the X line. The out‐of‐plane current bifurcated in the IDR. It peaked at the boundaries between the inflow and outflow electrons around the separatrices. Magnetic energy conversion and dissipation predominantly occurred at the peak of the out‐of‐plane current instead of at the neutral sheet center where BL = 0. Both the energy dissipation and normal electric field EN exhibited evident asymmetry with respect to the neutral sheet. The energy dissipation was larger around the northern separatrix than around the southern separatrix. The electric field EN showed a tripolar variation across the neutral sheet, that is, a unipolar EN around the southern separatrix and a bipolar EN around the northern separatrix. The reasons and implications of these asymmetries are discussed.

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“…An out-of-plane electron jet with peak V eM nearly 800 km/s was observed at this current sheet ( Figure 2c). This X line was either a secondary reconnection X line in the exhaust of a primary X line (Huang, Jiang, et al, 2018) or an X line pushed southward by a northward X line with faster reconnection rate in a multiple X line reconnection (Hasegawa et al, 2008;Hwang et al, 2018). Furthermore, V eL also exhibits an enhancement associated with the current sheet.…”

Section: Event Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of a Kinetic‐Scale Magnetic Hole in a Reconnection Diffusion Region

Zhong

Zhou

Huang

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Magnetic holes have been widely observed in various space plasma systems. The origin of magnetic holes and their influence to background plasma are under debate. In this paper, we show a kinetic‐scale electron vortex magnetic hole in a nonideal region of an active X line, which was observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission at the dayside magnetopause. Intense current and nonideal electric field in the electron frame were observed within the magnetic hole, which led to a strong energy dissipation. Thus, the electron vortex magnetic hole probably provided an additional energy dissipation channel besides the electron diffusion region adjacent to the hole. We suggest that magnetic reconnection provided favorable conditions for the formation of this kinetic‐scale magnetic hole and is an important source of magnetic holes in space plasma.

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Observations of the Electron Jet Generated by Secondary Reconnection in the Terrestrial Magnetotail

Cited by 54 publications

References 36 publications

Electron‐Driven Dissipation in a Tailward Flow Burst

Electron‐Driven Dissipation in a Tailward Flow Burst

Sub‐ion‐scale Dynamics of the Ion Diffusion Region in the Magnetotail: MMS Observations

Observations of a Kinetic‐Scale Magnetic Hole in a Reconnection Diffusion Region

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