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- Nakamura, Rumi, et al.
(författare)
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Multiscale Currents Observed by MMS in the Flow Braking Region
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION. - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 123:2, s. 1260-1278
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present characteristics of current layers in the off-equatorial near-Earth plasma sheet boundary observed with high time-resolution measurements from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission during an intense substorm associated with multiple dipolarizations. The four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft, separated by distances of about 50 km, were located in the southern hemisphere in the dusk portion of a substorm current wedge. They observed fast flow disturbances (up to about 500 km/s), most intense in the dawn-dusk direction. Field-aligned currents were observed initially within the expanding plasma sheet, where the flow and field disturbances showed the distinct pattern expected in the braking region of localized flows. Subsequently, intense thin field-aligned current layers were detected at the inner boundary of equatorward moving flux tubes together with Earthward streaming hot ions. Intense Hall current layers were found adjacent to the field-aligned currents. In particular, we found a Hall current structure in the vicinity of the Earthward streaming ion jet that consisted of mixed ion components, that is, hot unmagnetized ions, cold ExB drifting ions, and magnetized electrons. Our observations show that both the near-Earth plasma jet diversion and the thin Hall current layers formed around the reconnection jet boundary are the sites where diversion of the perpendicular currents take place that contribute to the observed field-aligned current pattern as predicted by simulations of reconnection jets. Hence, multiscale structure of flow braking is preserved in the field-aligned currents in the off-equatorial plasma sheet and is also translated to ionosphere to become a part of the substorm field-aligned current system.
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| 2. |
- Nakamura, Rumi, et al.
(författare)
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Near-Earth plasma sheet boundary dynamics during substorm dipolarization
- 2017
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Ingår i: Earth Planets and Space. - : Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. - 1343-8832 .- 1880-5981. ; 69
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report on the large-scale evolution of dipolarization in the near-Earth plasma sheet during an intense (AL similar to -1000 nT) substorm on August 10, 2016, when multiple spacecraft at radial distances between 4 and 15 RE were present in the night-side magnetosphere. This global dipolarization consisted of multiple short-timescale (a couple of minutes) Bz disturbances detected by spacecraft distributed over 9 MLT, consistent with the large-scale substorm current wedge observed by ground-based magnetometers. The four spacecraft of the Magnetospheric Multiscale were located in the southern hemisphere plasma sheet and observed fast flow disturbances associated with this dipolarization. The high-time-resolution measurements from MMS enable us to detect the rapid motion of the field structures and flow disturbances separately. A distinct pattern of the flow and field disturbance near the plasma boundaries was found. We suggest that a vortex motion created around the localized flows resulted in another fieldaligned current system at the off-equatorial side of the BBF-associated R1/R2 systems, as was predicted by the MHD simulation of a localized reconnection jet. The observations by GOES and Geotail, which were located in the opposite hemisphere and local time, support this view. We demonstrate that the processes of both Earthward flow braking and of accumulated magnetic flux evolving tailward also control the dynamics in the boundary region of the near-Earth plasma sheet.
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| 3. |
- Nakamura, Rumi, et al.
(författare)
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Structure of the Current Sheet in the 11 July 2017 Electron Diffusion Region Event
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2169-9380 .- 2169-9402. ; 124:2, s. 1173-1186
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The structure of the current sheet along the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) orbit is examined during the 11 July 2017 Electron Diffusion Region (EDR) event. The location of MMS relative to the X-line is deduced and used to obtain the spatial changes in the electron parameters. The electron velocity gradient values are used to estimate the reconnection electric field sustained by nongyrotropic pressure. It is shown that the observations are consistent with theoretical expectations for an inner EDR in 2-D reconnection. That is, the magnetic field gradient scale, where the electric field due to electron nongyrotropic pressure dominates, is comparable to the gyroscale of the thermal electrons at the edge of the inner EDR. Our approximation of the MMS observations using a steady state, quasi-2-D, tailward retreating X-line was valid only for about 1.4 s. This suggests that the inner EDR is localized; that is, electron outflow jet braking takes place within an ion inertia scale from the X-line. The existence of multiple events or current sheet processes outside the EDR may play an important role in the geometry of reconnection in the near-Earth magnetotail. Plain Language Summary Magnetic reconnection is the process by which magnetic field lines coming from one region are broken and reconnected with magnetic field lines coming from another region. The simplest descriptions of magnetic reconnection are two dimensional, and a number of theoretical predictions have been made using the two-dimensional assumption. We study a magnetic reconnection event observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft on 11 July 2017 and find approximate agreement between the observations and the predictions of a two-dimensional model. The agreement includes the scale size of the reconnection region, details of the particle orbits, and the rate of reconnection.
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