| 1. |
- André, Mats, et al.
(författare)
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Magnetic reconnection and modification of the Hall physics due to cold ions at the magnetopause
- 2016
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Ingår i: Geophysical Research Letters. - : Blackwell Publishing. - 0094-8276 .- 1944-8007. ; 43:13, s. 6705-6712
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Observations by the four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft are used to investigate the Hall physics of a magnetopause magnetic reconnection separatrix layer. Inside this layer of currents and strong normal electric fields, cold (eV) ions of ionospheric origin can remain frozen-in together with the electrons. The cold ions reduce the Hall current. Using a generalized Ohm's law, the electric field is balanced by the sum of the terms corresponding to the Hall current, the vxB drifting cold ions, and the divergence of the electron pressure tensor. A mixture of hot and cold ions is common at the subsolar magnetopause. A mixture of length scales caused by a mixture of ion temperatures has significant effects on the Hall physics of magnetic reconnection.
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| 2. |
- Arndt, D. S., et al.
(författare)
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State of the Climate in 2016
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). - 0003-0007 .- 1520-0477. ; 98:8, s. S1-S280
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2016, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth's atmosphere-carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide-continued to increase and reach new record highs. The 3.5 +/- 0.1 ppm rise in global annual mean carbon dioxide from 2015 to 2016 was the largest annual increase observed in the 58-year measurement record. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth's surface surpassed 400 ppm (402.9 +/- 0.1 ppm) for the first time in the modern atmospheric measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800000 years. One of the strongest El Nino events since at least 1950 dissipated in spring, and a weak La Nina evolved later in the year. Owing at least in part to the combination of El Nino conditions early in the year and a long-term upward trend, Earth's surface observed record warmth for a third consecutive year, albeit by a much slimmer margin than by which that record was set in 2015. Above Earth's surface, the annual lower troposphere temperature was record high according to all datasets analyzed, while the lower stratospheric temperature was record low according to most of the in situ and satellite datasets. Several countries, including Mexico and India, reported record high annual temperatures while many others observed near-record highs. A week-long heat wave at the end of April over the northern and eastern Indian peninsula, with temperatures surpassing 44 degrees C, contributed to a water crisis for 330 million people and to 300 fatalities. In the Arctic the 2016 land surface temperature was 2.0 degrees C above the 1981-2010 average, breaking the previous record of 2007, 2011, and 2015 by 0.8 degrees C, representing a 3.5 degrees C increase since the record began in 1900. The increasing temperatures have led to decreasing Arctic sea ice extent and thickness. On 24 March, the sea ice extent at the end of the growth season saw its lowest maximum in the 37-year satellite record, tying with 2015 at 7.2% below the 1981-2010 average. The September 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent tied with 2007 for the second lowest value on record, 33% lower than the 1981-2010 average. Arctic sea ice cover remains relatively young and thin, making it vulnerable to continued extensive melt. The mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has the capacity to contribute similar to 7 m to sea level rise, reached a record low value. The onset of its surface melt was the second earliest, after 2012, in the 37-year satellite record. Sea surface temperature was record high at the global scale, surpassing the previous record of 2015 by about 0.01 degrees C. The global sea surface temperature trend for the 21st century-to-date of +0.162 degrees C decade(-1) is much higher than the longer term 1950-2016 trend of +0.100 degrees C decade(-1). Global annual mean sea level also reached a new record high, marking the sixth consecutive year of increase. Global annual ocean heat content saw a slight drop compared to the record high in 2015. Alpine glacier retreat continued around the globe, and preliminary data indicate that 2016 is the 37th consecutive year of negative annual mass balance. Across the Northern Hemisphere, snow cover for each month from February to June was among its four least extensive in the 47-year satellite record. Continuing a pattern below the surface, record high temperatures at 20-m depth were measured at all permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska and at the Canadian observatory on northernmost Ellesmere Island. In the Antarctic, record low monthly surface pressures were broken at many stations, with the southern annular mode setting record high index values in March and June. Monthly high surface pressure records for August and November were set at several stations. During this period, record low daily and monthly sea ice extents were observed, with the November mean sea ice extent more than 5 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 average. These record low sea ice values contrast sharply with the record high values observed during 2012-14. Over the region, springtime Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletion was less severe relative to the 1991-2006 average, but ozone levels were still low compared to pre-1990 levels. Closer to the equator, 93 named tropical storms were observed during 2016, above the 1981-2010 average of 82, but fewer than the 101 storms recorded in 2015. Three basins-the North Atlantic, and eastern and western North Pacific-experienced above-normal activity in 2016. The Australian basin recorded its least active season since the beginning of the satellite era in 1970. Overall, four tropical cyclones reached the Saffir-Simpson category 5 intensity level. The strong El Nino at the beginning of the year that transitioned to a weak La Nina contributed to enhanced precipitation variability around the world. Wet conditions were observed throughout the year across southern South America, causing repeated heavy flooding in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Wetter-than-usual conditions were also observed for eastern Europe and central Asia, alleviating the drought conditions of 2014 and 2015 in southern Russia. In the United States, California had its first wetter-than-average year since 2012, after being plagued by drought for several years. Even so, the area covered by drought in 2016 at the global scale was among the largest in the post-1950 record. For each month, at least 12% of land surfaces experienced severe drought conditions or worse, the longest such stretch in the record. In northeastern Brazil, drought conditions were observed for the fifth consecutive year, making this the longest drought on record in the region. Dry conditions were also observed in western Bolivia and Peru; it was Bolivia's worst drought in the past 25 years. In May, with abnormally warm and dry conditions already prevailing over western Canada for about a year, the human-induced Fort McMurray wildfire burned nearly 590000 hectares and became the costliest disaster in Canadian history, with $3 billion (U.S. dollars) in insured losses.
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| 3. |
- Arndt, D. S., et al.
(författare)
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STATE OF THE CLIMATE IN 2017
- 2018
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Ingår i: Bulletin of The American Meteorological Society - (BAMS). - : American Meteorological Society. - 0003-0007 .- 1520-0477. ; 99:8, s. S1-S310
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)
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| 4. |
- Bicknell, Russell D.C., et al.
(författare)
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The gnathobasic spine microstructure of recent and Silurian chelicerates and the Cambrian artiopodan Sidneyia: Functional and evolutionary implications
- 2018
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Ingår i: Arthropod structure & development. - : Elsevier BV. - 1467-8039 .- 1873-5495. ; 47, s. 12-24
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Gnathobasic spines are located on the protopodal segments of the appendages of various euarthropod taxa, notably chelicerates. Although they are used to crush shells and masticate soft food items, the microstructure of these spines are relatively poorly known in both extant and extinct forms. Here we compare the gnathobasic spine microstructures of the Silurian eurypterid Eurypterus tetragonophthalmus from Estonia and the Cambrian artiopodan Sidneyia inexpectans from Canada with those of the Recent xiphosuran chelicerate Limulus polyphemus to infer potential variations in functional morphology through time. The thickened fibrous exocuticle in L. polyphemus spine tips enables effective prey mastication and shell crushing, while also reducing pressure on nerve endings that fill the spine cavities. The spine cuticle of E. tetragonophthalmus has a laminate structure and lacks the fibrous layers seen in L. polyphemus spines, suggesting that E. tetragonophthalmus may not have been capable of crushing thick shells, but a durophagous habit cannot be precluded. Conversely, the cuticle of S. inexpectans spines has asimilar fibrous microstructure to L. polyphemus, suggesting that S. inexpectans was a competent shell crusher. This conclusion is consistent with specimens showing preserved gut contents containing various shelly fragments. The shape and arrangement of the gnathobasic spines is similar for both L. polyphemusand S. inexpectans, with stouter spines in the posterior cephalothoracic or trunk appendages, respectively.This differentiation indicates that crushing occurs posteriorly, while the gnathobases on anterior appendages continue mastication and push food towards and into the mouth. The results of recent phylogenetic analyses that considered both modern and fossil euarthropod clades show that xiphosurans and eurypterids are united as crown-group euchelicerates, with S. inexpectans placed within more basalartiopodan clades. These relationships suggest that gnathobases with thickened fibrous exocuticle, if not homoplasious, may be plesiomorphic for chelicerates and deeper relatives within Arachnomorpha. This study shows that the gnathobasic spine microstructure best adapted for durophagy has remained remarkably constant since the Cambrian.
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| 5. |
- Breuillard, H., et al.
(författare)
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New Insights into the Nature of Turbulence in the Earth's Magnetosheath Using Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission Data
- 2018
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : IOP PUBLISHING LTD. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 859:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Earth's magnetosheath, which is characterized by highly turbulent fluctuations, is usually divided into two regions of different properties as a function of the angle between the interplanetary magnetic field and the shock normal. In this study, we make use of high-time resolution instruments on board the Magnetospheric MultiScale spacecraft to determine and compare the properties of subsolar magnetosheath turbulence in both regions, i. e., downstream of the quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular bow shocks. In particular, we take advantage of the unprecedented temporal resolution of the Fast Plasma Investigation instrument to show the density fluctuations down to sub-ion scales for the first time. We show that the nature of turbulence is highly compressible down to electron scales, particularly in the quasi-parallel magnetosheath. In this region, the magnetic turbulence also shows an inertial (Kolmogorov-like) range, indicating that the fluctuations are not formed locally, in contrast with the quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath. We also show that the electromagnetic turbulence is dominated by electric fluctuations at sub-ion scales (f > 1Hz) and that magnetic and electric spectra steepen at the largest-electron scale. The latter indicates a change in the nature of turbulence at electron scales. Finally, we show that the electric fluctuations around the electron gyrofrequency are mostly parallel in the quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath, where intense whistlers are observed. This result suggests that energy dissipation, plasma heating, and acceleration might be driven by intense electrostatic parallel structures/waves, which can be linked to whistler waves.
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| 6. |
- Breuillard, H., et al.
(författare)
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The Properties of Lion Roars and Electron Dynamics in Mirror Mode Waves Observed by the Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 123:1, s. 93-103
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mirror mode waves are ubiquitous in the Earth's magnetosheath, in particular behind the quasi-perpendicular shock. Embedded in these nonlinear structures, intense lion roars are often observed. Lion roars are characterized by whistler wave packets at a frequency similar to 100Hz, which are thought to be generated in the magnetic field minima. In this study, we make use of the high time resolution instruments on board the Magnetospheric MultiScale mission to investigate these waves and the associated electron dynamics in the quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath on 22 January 2016. We show that despite a core electron parallel anisotropy, lion roars can be generated locally in the range 0.05-0.2f(ce) by the perpendicular anisotropy of electrons in a particular energy range. We also show that intense lion roars can be observed up to higher frequencies due to the sharp nonlinear peaks of the signal, which appear as sharp spikes in the dynamic spectra. As a result, a high sampling rate is needed to estimate correctly their amplitude, and the latter might have been underestimated in previous studies using lower time resolution instruments. We also present for the first-time 3-D high time resolution electron velocity distribution functions in mirror modes. We demonstrate that the dynamics of electrons trapped in the mirror mode structures are consistent with the Kivelson and Southwood (1996) model. However, these electrons can also interact with the embedded lion roars: first signatures of electron quasi-linear pitch angle diffusion and possible signatures of nonlinear interaction with high-amplitude wave packets are presented. These processes can lead to electron untrapping from mirror modes.
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| 7. |
- Chasapis, A., et al.
(författare)
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Electron Heating at Kinetic Scales in Magnetosheath Turbulence
- 2017
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 836:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a statistical study of coherent structures at kinetic scales, using data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission in the Earth's magnetosheath. We implemented the multi-spacecraft partial variance of increments (PVI) technique to detect these structures, which are associated with intermittency at kinetic scales. We examine the properties of the electron heating occurring within such structures. We find that, statistically, structures with a high PVI index are regions of significant electron heating. We also focus on one such structure, a current sheet, which shows some signatures consistent with magnetic reconnection. Strong parallel electron heating coincides with whistler emissions at the edges of the current sheet.
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| 8. |
- Chasapis, A., et al.
(författare)
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In Situ Observation of Intermittent Dissipation at Kinetic Scales in the Earth's Magnetosheath
- 2018
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - : Institute of Physics Publishing. - 2041-8205 .- 2041-8213. ; 856:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a study of signatures of energy dissipation at kinetic scales in plasma turbulence based on observations by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) in the Earth's magnetosheath. Using several intervals, and taking advantage of the high-resolution instrumentation on board MMS, we compute and discuss several statistical measures of coherent structures and heating associated with electrons, at previously unattainable scales in space and time. We use the multi-spacecraft Partial Variance of Increments (PVI) technique to study the intermittent structure of the magnetic field. Furthermore, we examine a measure of dissipation and its behavior with respect to the PVI as well as the current density. Additionally, we analyze the evolution of the anisotropic electron temperature and non-Maxwellian features of the particle distribution function. From these diagnostics emerges strong statistical evidence that electrons are preferentially heated in subproton-scale regions of strong electric current density, and this heating is preferentially in the parallel direction relative to the local magnetic field. Accordingly, the conversion of magnetic energy into electron kinetic energy occurs more strongly in regions of stronger current density, a finding consistent with several kinetic plasma simulation studies and hinted at by prior studies using lower resolution Cluster observations.
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| 9. |
- Chen, L. -J, et al.
(författare)
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Electron Bulk Acceleration and Thermalization at Earth's Quasiperpendicular Bow Shock
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - : American Physical Society. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 120:22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Electron heating at Earth's quasiperpendicular bow shock has been surmised to be due to the combined effects of a quasistatic electric potential and scattering through wave-particle interaction. Here we report the observation of electron distribution functions indicating a new electron heating process occurring at the leading edge of the shock front. Incident solar wind electrons are accelerated parallel to the magnetic field toward downstream, reaching an electron-ion relative drift speed exceeding the electron thermal speed. The bulk acceleration is associated with an electric field pulse embedded in a whistler-mode wave. The high electron-ion relative drift is relaxed primarily through a nonlinear current-driven instability. The relaxed distributions contain a beam traveling toward the shock as a remnant of the accelerated electrons. Similar distribution functions prevail throughout the shock transition layer, suggesting that the observed acceleration and thermalization is essential to the cross-shock electron heating.
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| 10. |
- Chen, L. -J, et al.
(författare)
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Electron diffusion region during magnetopause reconnection with an intermediate guide field : Magnetospheric multiscale observations
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : Blackwell Publishing Ltd. - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 122:5, s. 5235-5246
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An electron diffusion region (EDR) in magnetic reconnection with a guide magnetic field approximately 0.2 times the reconnecting component is encountered by the four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft at the Earth's magnetopause. The distinct substructures in the EDR on both sides of the reconnecting current sheet are visualized with electron distribution functions that are 2 orders of magnitude higher cadence than ever achieved to enable the following new findings: (1) Motion of the demagnetized electrons plays an important role to sustain the reconnection current and contributes to the dissipation due to the nonideal electric field, (2) the finite guide field dominates over the Hall magnetic field in an electron-scale region in the exhaust and modifies the electron flow dynamics in the EDR, (3) the reconnection current is in part carried by inflowing field-aligned electrons in the magnetosphere part of the EDR, and (4) the reconnection electric field measured by multiple spacecraft is uniform over at least eight electron skin depths and corresponds to a reconnection rate of approximately 0.1. The observations establish the first look at the structure of the EDR under a weak but not negligible guide field.
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