Reconnection onset in the tail of Earth's magnetosphere

Sitnov, M. I.; Sharma, A. S.; Guzdar, P. N.; Yoon, Peter H.

doi:10.1029/2001ja009148

Cited by 50 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…All these effects can influence CS stability and determine rate of magnetic reconnection (Burkhart et al 1992b;Krallmann et al 1994;Sitnov et al 2002;Karimabadi et al 2003aKarimabadi et al , 2003b. Modern theories of stability concentrate on specific B z (x) profiles Coroniti 2010, 2011;Sitnov and Schindler 2010;Sitnov et al 2013), while many other CS properties are waiting for their comprehensive numerical modeling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Current Sheets in the Earth Magnetotail: Plasma and Magnetic Field Structure with Cluster Project Observations

et al. 2015

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Thin current sheets having kinetic scales are an important plasma structure, where the magnetic energy dissipation and charged particle acceleration are the most effective. It is believed that such current sheets are self-consistently formed by the specific nonadiabatic dynamics of charged particles and play a critical role in many space plasma and astrophysical objects. Current sheets in the near-Earth plasma environment, e.g., the magnetotail current sheet, are readily available for in-situ investigations. The dedicated multi-spacecraft Cluster mission have revealed basic properties of this current sheet, which are presented in this review: typical spatial profiles of magnetic field and current density, distributions of plasma temperature and density, role of heavy ions and electron currents, etc. Being important for the Earth magnetosphere physics, the new knowledge also could provide the basis for advancement in general plasma physics as well as in plasma astrophysics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Current Sheets in the Earth Magnetotail: Plasma and Magnetic Field Structure with Cluster Project Observations

et al. 2015

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“…It is well possible that additional destabilizing effects, such as the presence of nongyrotropic electrons arising from a local reduction of the normal field B z [Hesse and Schindler, 2001;Pritchett, 2005] or modified boundary conditions [Sitnov et al, 2002[Sitnov et al, , 2009Daughton et al, 2006;Divin et al, 2007], are necessary to turn the tail unstable. However, even then destabilization due to the presence of a multiscale equilibrium structure of the type discussed in this paper would play an important role, so that it has an essential favoring influence on the onset of magnetospheric substorms.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tearing stability of a multiscale magnetotail current sheet

Sitnov

Schindler

2010

Geophysical Research Letters

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152

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The sufficient stability criterion of the collisionless ion tearing mode in the magnetotail current sheet, which was first obtained by Lembege and Pellat in 1982, is considered. For many conventional 2D current sheet equilibria, this criterion is satisfied within the WKB approximation, which is commonly interpreted as stability of those equilibria with respect to tearing. However, this is not necessarily the case for equilibria with more than two characteristic spatial scales. An example for substantial tearing destabilization of an equilibrium with accumulation of the magnetic flux at the tailward end of a thin current sheet is presented. Similar equilibria are reported in Geotail and THEMIS observations prior to onsets of magnetospheric substorms and dipolarization fronts associated with bursty bulk flows.

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“…Such asymmetry is consistent with statistical results by Asano et al (2004), who showed that the initial current sheet thickness at substorm onset is smaller for cases starting from earthward flow bursts than in cases starting with tailward flow bursts, which implies that magnetic reconnection activated asymmetrically, preferring the tailward portion of the intense current sheet. Such asymmetry, for example, was suggested theoretically by Sitnov et al (2002), who considered the influence of transient electron population on the excitation of tearing instability.…”

Section: Tail Current Sheet Dynamics On the Large Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Transition from substorm growth to substorm expansion phase as observed with a radial configuration of ISTP and Cluster spacecraft

Сергеев

Kubyshkina

Baumjohann³

et al. 2005

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. Transition from the growth phase to the substorm expansion during a well-isolated substorm with a strong growth phase is investigated using a unique radial (THEMISlike) spacecraft constellation near midnight, including the probing of the tail current at ∼16 R E with Cluster, of the transition region at ∼9 R E with Geotail and Polar, and of the inner region at 6.6 R E with two LANL spacecraft. The activity development on both a global scale and near the spacecraft footpoints was monitored with global auroral images (from the IMAGE spacecraft) and the ground network. Magnetospheric models, tuned using in-situ observations, indicated a strong tail stretching and plasma sheet thinning, which included the growth of the near-Earth current (approaching 30 nA/m 2 ) and possible formation of a local B minimum in the neutral sheet (∼5 nT) at ∼10-12 R E near the substorm onset. However, there were no indications that the substorm onset was initiated just in this region. We emphasize the rather weak magnetic and plasma flow perturbations observed outside the thinned plasma sheet at Cluster, which could be interpreted as the effects of localized earthward-contracting newly-reconnected plasma tubes produced by the impulsive reconnection in the midtail plasma sheet. In that case the time delays around the distinct substorm onset are consistent with the activity propagation from the midtail to the inner magnetosphere. A peculiar feature of this substorm was that 12 min prior to this distinct onset, a clear soft plasma injection to the GEO orbit was recorded which has little associated effects both in the ionosphere and in the transition region at ∼9 R E . This pseudo-breakup was probably due to either a localized ballooning-type activity or Correspondence to: V. A. Sergeev (victor@geo.phys.spbu.ru) due to the braking of a very narrow BBF whose signatures were also recorded by Cluster. This event manifested the (previously unknown) phenomenon, a strong tail overloading (excessive storage of magnetic energy) contrasted to the modest energy dissipation and plasma acceleration, which are both discussed and interpreted as the consequences of cold/dense and thick pre-substorm plasma sheet which often occurs after the long quiet period. The lessons of using the radial spacecraft configurations in substorm onset studies are also discussed.

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Reconnection onset in the tail of Earth's magnetosphere

Cited by 50 publications

References 97 publications

Current Sheets in the Earth Magnetotail: Plasma and Magnetic Field Structure with Cluster Project Observations

Current Sheets in the Earth Magnetotail: Plasma and Magnetic Field Structure with Cluster Project Observations

Tearing stability of a multiscale magnetotail current sheet

Transition from substorm growth to substorm expansion phase as observed with a radial configuration of ISTP and Cluster spacecraft

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