Ion-scale secondary flux ropes generated by magnetopause reconnection as resolved by MMS
New Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations of small-scale (~7 ion inertial length radius) flux transfer events (FTEs) at the dayside magnetopause are reported. The 10 km MMS tetrahedron size enables their structure and properties to be calculated using a variety of multispacecraft techniques,...
| Publié dans: | Geophysical research letters. - 1984. - 43(2016), 10 vom: 28. Mai, Seite 4716-4724 |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Autres auteurs: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Langue: | English |
| Publié: |
2016
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| Accès à la collection: | Geophysical research letters |
| Sujets: | Journal Article flux rope magnetic reconnection magnetopause magnetospheric multiscale secondary island |
| Résumé: | New Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) observations of small-scale (~7 ion inertial length radius) flux transfer events (FTEs) at the dayside magnetopause are reported. The 10 km MMS tetrahedron size enables their structure and properties to be calculated using a variety of multispacecraft techniques, allowing them to be identified as flux ropes, whose flux content is small (~22 kWb). The current density, calculated using plasma and magnetic field measurements independently, is found to be filamentary. Intercomparison of the plasma moments with electric and magnetic field measurements reveals structured non-frozen-in ion behavior. The data are further compared with a particle-in-cell simulation. It is concluded that these small-scale flux ropes, which are not seen to be growing, represent a distinct class of FTE which is generated on the magnetopause by secondary reconnection |
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| Description: | Date Revised 09.01.2021 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 0094-8276 |