E-resources
-
Nakamura, T. K. M.; Genestreti, K. J.; Liu, Y.‐H.; Nakamura, R.; Teh, W.‐L.; Hasegawa, H.; Daughton, W.; Hesse, M.; Torbert, R. B.; Burch, J. L.; Giles, B. L.
Journal of geophysical research. Space physics, November 2018, Volume: 123, Issue: 11Journal Article
In the Earth's magnetotail, magnetic reconnection releases stored magnetic energy and drives magnetospheric convection. The rate at which magnetic flux is transferred from the reconnection inflow to outflow regions is determined by the reconnection electric field Er, which is often referred to as the unnormalized reconnection rate. To better quantify the efficiency of reconnection, this electric field Er is often normalized by the characteristic Alfvén speed and the reconnecting magnetic field. This parameter is generally called the normalized or dimensionless reconnection rate R. In this paper, we employ a two‐dimensional fully kinetic simulation to model a magnetotail reconnection event with weak geomagnetic activity (<200 nT of the AE index) observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission on 11 July 2017. We obtain R and Er from direct measurements in the diffusion region and indirect measurements of the rate at the separatrix using a recently proposed remote sensing technique. The measured normalized rate for this MMS event is R ∼0.15–0.2, consistent with theoretical and simulation models of fast collisionless reconnection. This corresponds to an unnormalized rate of Er ∼2–3 mV/m. Based on quantitative consistencies between the simulation and the MMS observations, we conclude that our estimates of the reconnection rates are reasonably accurate. Given that past studies have found Er of the order ∼10 mV/m during strong geomagnetic substorms, these results indicate that the local Er in magnetotail reconnection may be an important parameter controlling the amplitude of geomagnetic disturbances. Key Points Reliable reconnection rates are obtained based on virtual observations in a fully kinetic simulation of an MMS tail reconnection event The normalized rates obtained from the simulation and MMS data are 0.15–0.2, indicating the occurrence of fast reconnection The observed unnormalized rate is 2–3 mV/m, while higher rates were observed in other events with stronger geomagnetic activities
Author
![loading ... loading ...](themes/default/img/ajax-loading.gif)
Shelf entry
Permalink
- URL:
Impact factor
Access to the JCR database is permitted only to users from Slovenia. Your current IP address is not on the list of IP addresses with access permission, and authentication with the relevant AAI accout is required.
Year | Impact factor | Edition | Category | Classification | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
JCR | SNIP | JCR | SNIP | JCR | SNIP | JCR | SNIP |
Select the library membership card:
If the library membership card is not in the list,
add a new one.
DRS, in which the journal is indexed
Database name | Field | Year |
---|
Links to authors' personal bibliographies | Links to information on researchers in the SICRIS system |
---|
Source: Personal bibliographies
and: SICRIS
The material is available in full text. If you wish to order the material anyway, click the Continue button.