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- Title
Observation of Three-Dimensional Magnetic Reconnection in the Terrestrial Magnetotail.
- Authors
Zhou, Meng; Ashour-Abdalla, Maha; Deng, Xiaohua; Pang, Ye; Fu, Huishan; Walker, Raymond; Lapenta, Giovanni; Huang, Shiyong; Xu, Xiaojun; Tang, Rongxin
- Abstract
Study of magnetic reconnection has been focused on two-dimensional geometry in the past decades, whereas three-dimensional structures and dynamics of reconnection X line are poorly understood. In this paper, we report Cluster multispacecraft observations of a three-dimensional magnetic reconnection X line with a weak guide field (~25% of the upstream magnetic field) in the Earth's magnetotail. We find that the X line not only retreated tailward but also expanded across the tail following the electron flow direction with a maximum average speed of (0.04-0.15) VA,up, where VA,up is the upstream Alfvén speed, or (0.14-0.57) Vde, where Vde is the electron flow speed in the out-of-plane direction. An ion diffusion region was observed by two spacecraft that were separated about 10 ion inertial lengths along the out-of-plane direction; however, these two spacecraft observed distinct magnetic structures associated with reconnection: one spacecraft observed dipolarization fronts, while the other one observed flux ropes. This indicates that reconnection proceeds in drastically different ways in different segments along the X line only a few ion inertial lengths apart.
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics, 2017, Vol 122, Issue 9, p9513
- ISSN
2169-9380
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/2017JA024597