| Autor: |
Cozzani, Giulia, Retinò, Alessandro, Califano, Francesco, Alexandrova, Alexandra, Contel, Olivier Le, Khotyaintsev, Yuri, Vaivads, Andris, Fu, Huishan, Catapano, Filomena, Breuillard, Hugo, Ahmadi, Narges, Lindqvist, Per-Arne, Ergun, Robert E., Torbert, Robert B., Giles, Barbara L., Russell, Christopher T., Nakamura, Rumi, Fuselier, Stephen, Mauk, Barry H., Moore, Thomas, Burch, James L. |
| Rok vydání: |
2019 |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Phys. Rev. E 99, 043204 (2019) |
| Druh dokumentu: |
Working Paper |
| DOI: |
10.1103/PhysRevE.99.043204 |
| Popis: |
The Electron Diffusion Region (EDR) is the region where magnetic reconnection is initiated and electrons are energized. Because of experimental difficulties, the structure of the EDR is still poorly understood. A key question is whether the EDR has a homogeneous or patchy structure. Here we report Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) novel spacecraft observations providing evidence of inhomogeneous current densities and energy conversion over a few electron inertial lengths within an EDR at the terrestrial magnetopause, suggesting that the EDR can be rather structured. These inhomogenenities are revealed through multi-point measurements because the spacecraft separation is comparable to a few electron inertial lengths, allowing the entire MMS tetrahedron to be within the EDR most of the time. These observations are consistent with recent high-resolution and low-noise kinetic simulations. |
| Databáze: |
arXiv |
| Externí odkaz: |
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