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NASA NTRS2024

Localized Magnetopause Erosion at Geosynchronous Orbit by Reconnection

This study presents observations of magnetopause reconnection and erosion at geosynchronous orbit, utilizing in situ satellite measurements and remote sensing ground‐based instruments. During the main phase of a geomagnetic storm, Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 15 was on the dawnside of the dayside magnetopause (10.6 MLT) and observed significant magnetopause erosion, while GOES 13, observing duskside (14.6 MLT), remained within the magnetosphere. Combined observations from the THEMIS satellites and Super Dual Auroral Radar Network radars verified that magnetopause erosion was primarily caused by reconnection. While various factors may contribute to asymmetric erosion, the observations suggest that the weak reconnection rate on the duskside can play a role in the formation of asymmetric magnetopause shape. This discrepancy in reconnection rate is associated with the presence of cold dense plasma on the duskside of the magnetosphere, which limits the reconnection rate by mass loading, resulting in more efficient magnetopause erosion on the dawnside.

Hyangpyo Kim↗

NASA NTRS2024

Relation Between Magnetopause Position and Reconnection Rate Under Quasi‑Steady Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure

The lunar environment heliospheric X-ray imager (LEXI) and solar wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere link explorer (SMILE) will observe the magnetopause motion in soft X-rays to understand dayside reconnection modes as a function of solar wind conditions after their respective launches in the near future. To support their successful science mission, we investigate the relationship between the magnetopause position and the dayside reconnection rate by utilizing super dual auroral radar network (SuperDARN) observations and widely used empirical models of magnetopause position (Shue et al. in J Geophys Res 103:17691–17700. https://doi.org/10.1029/98JA01103, 1998 and Lin et al. in J Geophys Res 115:A04207. https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JA014235, 2010). We select three cases when the interplanetary magnetic field rotates during periods of quasi-steady solar wind dynamic pressure. We first estimate the dayside reconnection rate by calculating the electric field along the open–closed magnetic field boundary (OCB) in the OCB moving reference frame. Then, we estimate the magnetopause position near the local noon by inputting NASA OMNI solar wind data into the empirical magnetopause models. The reconnection rate shows anti-correlation with the magnetopause position that it generally increases as the magnetopause located closer to Earth and vice versa. Our result also confirms that the reconnection rate increases as the empirical coupling efficiency between solar wind and the magnetosphere increases.

Hyangpyo Kim↗

NASA NTRS2014

Forced Reconnection in the Near Magnetotail: Onset and Energy Conversion in PIC and MHD Simulations

Using two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) together with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Q1 simulations of magnetotail dynamics, we investigate the evolution toward onset of reconnection and the subsequent energy transfer and conversion. In either case, reconnection onset is preceded by a driven phase, during which magnetic flux is added to the tail at the high-latitude boundaries, followed by a relaxation phase, during which the configuration continues to respond to the driving. The boundary deformation leads to the formation of thin embedded current sheets, which are bifurcated in the near tail, converging to a single sheet farther out in the MHD simulations. The thin current sheets in the PIC simulation are carried by electrons and are associated with a strong perpendicular electrostatic field, which may provide a connection to parallel potentials and auroral arcs and an ionospheric signal even prior to the onset of reconnection. The PIC simulation very well satisfies integral entropy conservation (intrinsic to ideal MHD) during this phase, supporting ideal ballooning stability. Eventually, the current intensification leads to the onset of reconnection, the formation and ejection of a plasmoid, and a collapse of the inner tail. The earthward flow shows the characteristics of a dipolarization front: enhancement of Bz, associated with a thin vertical electron current sheet in the PIC simulation. Both MHD and PIC simulations show a dominance of energy conversion from incoming Poynting flux to outgoing enthalpy flux, resulting in heating of the inner tail. Localized Joule dissipation plays only a minor role.

two-dimensional↗

NASA NTRS2014

Simultaneous Ground- and Space-Based Observations of the Plasmaspheric Plume and Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection is the primary process through which energy couples from the solar wind into Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. Conditions both in the incident solar wind and in the magnetosphere are important in determining the efficiency of this energy transfer. In particular, the cold, dense plasmaspheric plume can substantially impact the coupling in the dayside reconnection region. Using ground-based total electron content (TEC) maps and measurements from the THEMIS spacecraft, we investigated simultaneous ionosphere and magnetosphere observations of the plasmaspheric plume and its involvement in an unsteady magnetic reconnection process. The observations show the full circulation pattern of the plasmaspheric plume and validate the connection between signatures of variability in the dense plume and reconnection at the magnetopause as measured in situ and through TEC measurements in the ionosphere.

plumes↗

NASA NTRS2016

Electron Energization and Structure of the Diffusion Region During Asymmetric Reconnection

Results from particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection with asymmetric upstream conditions are reported to elucidate electron energization and structure of the electron diffusion region (EDR). Acceleration of unmagnetized electrons results in discrete structures in the distribution functions and supports the intense current and perpendicular heating in the EDR. The accelerated electrons are cyclotron turned by the reconnected magnetic field to produce the outflow jets, and as such, the acceleration by the reconnection electric field is limited, leading to resistivity without particle-particle or particle-wave collisions. A map of electron distributions is constructed, and its spatial evolution is compared with quantities previously proposed to be EDR identifiers to enable effective identifications of the EDR in terrestrial magnetopause reconnection.

magnetic reconnection↗

NASA NTRS2022

Variability of the Reconnection Guide Field in Solar Flares

Solar ﬂares may be the best-known examples of the explosive conversion of magnetic energy into bulk motion, plasma heating, and particle acceleration via magnetic re-connection. The energy source for all ﬂares is the highly sheared magnetic ﬁeld of a ﬁlament channel above a polarity inversion line (PIL). During the ﬂare, this shear ﬁeld becomes the so-called reconnection guide ﬁeld (i.e., the non-reconnecting component), which has been shown to play a major role in determining key properties of the recon-nection including the eﬃciency of particle acceleration. We present new high-resolution, three-dimensional, magnetohydrodynamics simulations that reveal the detailed evolution of the magnetic shear/guide ﬁeld throughout an eruptive ﬂare. The magnetic shear evolves in three distinct phases: shear ﬁrst builds up in a narrow region about the PIL, then expands outward to form a thin vertical current sheet, and ﬁnally is transferred by ﬂare reconnection into an arcade of sheared ﬂare loops and an erupting ﬂux rope. We demonstrate how the guide ﬁeld may be inferred from observations of the sheared ﬂare loops. Our results indicate that initially the guide ﬁeld is larger by about a factor of 5 than the reconnecting component, but it weakens by more than an order of magnitude over the course of the ﬂare. Instantaneously, the guide ﬁeld also varies spatially over a similar range along the three-dimensional current sheet. We discuss the implications of the remarkable variability of the guide ﬁeld for the timing and localization of eﬃcient particle acceleration in ﬂares.

Solar magnetic reconnection↗

NASA NTRS2022

Lower-Hybrid Wave Structures and Interactions With Electrons Observed in Magnetotail Reconnection Diffusion Regions

We investigate waves close to the lower-hybrid frequency in 12 magnetotail reconnection electron diffusion region (EDR) events with guide field levels of near-zero to 30%. In about half of the events, the wave vector has a small component along the current sheet normal, consistent with known lower-hybrid drift wave properties, but the perpendicular magnetic field fluctuations can be comparable or greater than the parallel component, a feature unique to the waves inside and adjacent to EDRs. Another new wave property is that the wave vector has a significant component along the current sheet normal in some events and completely along the normal for one event. In 1/4of the events, the ∇∙𝑷(sub 𝑒) term has a significant contribution to the wave electric field, possibly a feature of lower-hybrid waves more likely to exist in the diffusion region than further away from the X-line. Electron temperature variations are correlated with the wave potential, due to wave electric field acceleration and crossings at the corrugated separatrix region with different amounts of mixing between reconnection inflowing and outflowing populations. The latter also leads to the anti-correlation between parallel and perpendicular temperature components. Using four-spacecraft measurements, the magnetic field line twisting is demonstrated by the correlated fluctuations in (∇×𝑽(sub 𝐸×𝐵))||and (∇×𝐁)||. The lower-hybrid wave in the EDR of weak guide field reconnection may be generated near separatrices and penetrate to the mid-plane or locally generated, and the latter possibility is beyond the prediction of previous reconnection simulations.

Magnetic reconnection↗

NASA NTRS2022

The EDR Inflow Region of a Reconnecting Current Sheet in the Geomagnetic Tail

On 6 July 2017, the four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecrafts were positioned within an electron diffusion region (EDR) just northward of a reconnection X line. The EDR was identified by electron crescent distributions, out-of-plane current, and energy conversion. From this position, the three spacecrafts closest to the X line (within about three electron inertial lengths) were able to accurately measure the reconnection electric field and the electron inflow velocity. The reconnection rates derived from the electric field and inflow velocity measurements agree with theoretical estimates (0.11–0.17) and a previous measurement of EM in a tail reconnection event on 11 July 2017.

Energy conversion↗

NASA NTRS1974

Magnetopause reconnection rate

Discussion of certain aspects of the magnetic field reconnection process at the magnetopause. It is argued that the upper limits on reconnection derived by Petschek (1964), on the one hand, and Yeh and Axford (1970) and Sonnerup (1970), on the other, may be reconciled, at least qualitatively. Further, the possibility that magnetopause reconnection proceeds at this upper limit remains a real one. It is demonstrated that under the same assumptions as those used by Petschek (1964, 1966) the theoretical upper limit on the electric field component parallel to the X type magnetic null line is proportional to sin squared (theta/2) when the magnetic fields on the two sides of the magnetopause have equal magnitude. Finally, it is shown that when the magnetic field outside the magnetopause is weaker than the field inside that surface, reconnection may cease altogether for cos theta greater than the ratio of the outside field to the inside one.

Sonnerup, B. U. O.↗

NASA NTRS1974

A quantitative model for the potential resulting from reconnection with an arbitrary interplanetary magnetic field

A quantitative three-dimensional model is proposed for the electric potential arising from magnetopause reconnection, in which several approximations are made concerning configuration of the magnetosheath flow, limitations on the magnitude of the reconnection speed, and the geometry of the problem. These approximations are such that the model yields an upper limit for the potential. The magnitude of the polar cap ionospheric electric field computed from this model is larger than that measured on balloons by an average factor of about 3, and the model reproduces the temporal variations of the experimental data. It is concluded that magnetopause reconnection is a highly efficient process that is probably the dominant mechanism driving polar cap convection and supplying energy to the magnetosphere. It seems that the most efficient way for the solar wind to pass the magnetospheric obstacle is by magnetopause reconnection.

Gonzalez, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Leakage of magnetospheric ions into the magnetosheath along reconnected field lines at the dayside magnetopause

Strong evidence is presented for escape of magnetospheric particles along reconnected field lines into the magnetosheath, using observations of approximately 30 to approximately 120-keV/charge protons and alpha particles made by the Max-Planck-Institut/University of Maryland instrument on Isee 1. During three magnetopause crossings, which have been identified from tangential stress balance analysis as reconnection events, the magnetospheric particle distribution extends well into the magnetosheath, and the particles in the magnetosheath show a strong anisotropy along the magnetic field. The proton to alpha particle ratio in this layer as well as in distinct bursts within the magnetosheath is the same as this ratio within the magnetosphere (at equal energy per charge). It is concluded that the most likely explanation for these observations is that magnetospheric particles are escaping along reconnected field lines into the magnetosheath. It is argued that magnetospheric particles are seen in the magnetosheath up to the reconnection separatrix, and the magnetosheath bursts are interpreted as multiple encounters of this magnetosheath layer by the satellite due to boundary motions.

Scholer, M.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Interplanetary gas. XXVI - On the reconnection of magnetic fields in cometary ionospheres at interplanetary sector boundary crossings

The reconnection process in the cometary ionosphere believed responsible for the disconnecting plasma tails phenomenon is studied through the basic equations of reconnection theory and current sheet instability criteria. It is proposed that reconnection occurs when the interplanetary magnetic fields incident on a comet that has gone just past a sector boundary are pressed into the fields captured from the previous sector. The fields are of opposite polarity, and the previously captured fields constitute the 'roots' of the plasma tail. An estimated duration of reconnection during a disconnection event (DE) of 0.75 days is used along with estimates of other cometary parameters to construct fusion region dimensions and resistivity with the adopted time scale.

Niedner, M. B., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Reconnection rates, small scale structures and simulations

The study of reconnection in the context of one fluid, two dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), with spatially uniform constant density, viscosity and resistivity is though to retain most of the physics important in reconnection. Much of the existing reconnection literature makes use of this approach. This discussion focuses on attempts to determine the properties of reconnection solutions to MHD as precisely as possible without regard to the intrinsic limitations of the model.

Matthaeus, W. H.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Particle acceleration by turbulent magnetohydro-dynamic reconnection

Test particles in a two dimensional, turbulent MHD simulation are found to undergo significant acceleration. The magnetic field configuration is a periodic sheet pinch which undergoes reconnection. The test particles are trapped in the reconnection region for times of order an Alfven transit time in the large electric fields that characterize the turbulent reconnection process at the relatively large magnetic Reynolds number used in the simulation. The maximum speed attained by these particles is consistent with an analytic estimate which depends on the reconnection electric field, the Alfven speed, and the ratio of Larmor period to the Alfven transit time.

Matthaeus, W. H.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Particle-acceleration by turbulent magnetohydrodynamic reconnection

Matthaeus, W. H.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Reconnection at the earth's magnetopause - Magnetic field observations and flux transfer events

Theoretical models of plasma acceleration by magnetic-field-line reconnection at the earth magnetopause and the high-resolution three-dimensional plasma measurements obtained with the ISEE satellites are compared and illustrated with diagrams, graphs, drawings, and histograms. The history of reconnection theory and the results of early satellite observations are summarized; the thickness of the magnetopause current layer is discussed; problems in analyzing the polarization of current-layer rotation are considered; and the flux-transfer events responsible for periods of patchy reconnection are characterized in detail. The need for further observations and refinements of the theory to explain the initiation of reconnection and identify the mechanism determining whether it is patchy or steady-state is indicated.

Russell, C. T.↗

NASA NTRS1986

New models for fast steady state magnetic reconnection

A new unified family of models for incompressible, steady-state magnetic reconnection in a finite region is presented. The models are obtained by expanding in powers of the Alfven Mach number and may be used to elucidate some of the puzzling properties of numerical experiments on reconnection which are not present in the classical models. The conditions imposed on the inflow boundary of the finite region determine which member of the family occurs. Petscheklien and Sonnerup like solutions are particular members. The Sonneruplike regime is a special case of a weak slow mode expansion in the inflow region, and it separates two classes of members with reversed currents. The Petscheklike regime is a singular case of a weak fast mode expansion, and it separates the hybrid regime from a regime of slow mode compressions. Care should be taken in deciding which type of reconnection is operating in a numerical experiment. Indeed, no experiment to date has used boundary conditions appropriate for demonstrating steady state Petschek reconnection.

Priest, E. R.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Magnetosheath quasi-trapped distributions and ion flows associated with reconnection

Using a sample of ISEE 1 and 2 magnetopause crossings previously identified as times of quasi-steady reconnection, flows of medium energy ions in the magnetosheath are identified. The paper then investigates the particle pitch angle distribution immediately before and after each of these events for the signature of quasi-trapped distributions of energetic ions. Several of the ion flows identified were observed simultaneously with previously identified flux transfer events (FTEs). While FTEs identified from the magnetometer tracings typically show evidence of ion flows, the converse is not necessarily true. However, all properties of the magnetosheath ion flows are the same regardless of whether an FTE can be identified from the magnetometer data. Evidence is found for small-scale reconnection processes (FTEs, ion flows) embedded within a larger region of interconnected field, which is traced out by the quasi-trapped particles. Quasi-trapped distributions of medium-energy ions are seen to sandwich reconnection-associated ion flows in the magnetosheath. The results of this survey have been used to suggest a morphology for reconnection events that incorporates both large- and small-scale features.

Neff, J. E.↗