Observation of directional change of core field inside flux ropes within one reconnection diffusion region in the Earth’s magnetotail

Two consecutive magnetic flux ropes, separated by less than 30 s （△t 〈 30 s）, are observed within one magnetic reconnection diffusion region without strong guide field in the Earth＇s magnetotail by Cluster multispacecraft. The flux ropes are characterized by bipolar signatures of the south-north magnetic field component Bz accompanied with strong core magnetic field By, intense current J and density depletions inside of them. In spite of the small but non-trivial global scale negative guide field （-By）, there exists a directional change of the core fields of two flux ropes, i.e., -By for the first one, and ＋By for the second one. The directions of the core fields are the same as the ambient cross-tail magnetic field component （By） just outside of flux ropes. Therefore, we suggest that the core field of flux ropes is formed by compression of the local preexisting By and that the directional change of core field is due to the change of local preexisting By. Such a change in ambient By might be caused by some microscale physics.     

无碰撞磁场重联中的磁岛（英文）

在以下两个方面回顾了磁岛在无碰撞磁场重联中的作用:磁能到等离子体动能和热能的快速转化以及高能量电子的产生.重联的X点附近的电流片可能被拉伸并导致撕裂模不稳定性,并形成相互作用的次级磁岛.这种非稳态的磁场重联图像可以维持长时间的高重联率,进而有效地耗散磁能.电子可在磁岛内通过费米和betatron机制加速,也可在X点附近通过重联电场加速.磁岛间的相互作用可进一步加速电子.这些加速过程可导致高能量电子的幂律谱分布.     

关于磁重联区三维磁零点的卫星观测研究

磁重联是等离子体中磁场能量快速转换为粒子动能和热能的主要途径,是空间物理和等离子体物理中的重要现象.磁重联过程发生在磁场的拓扑分形面上;这种分形面一般是由磁零点附近磁场梯度张量的本征矢量确定的.磁零点的三维特性要求至少空间4点的同时测量.Cluster计划提供了迄今为止唯一的卫星测量手段.基于Poincare指数方法分析Cluster卫星在地球磁尾的探测数据,(1) 找到了磁重联过程中存在4种磁零点的证据;(2) 发现磁零点周围磁场的空间特征尺度大约为离子惯性长度,从而首次揭示霍尔效应可能在三维磁重联中起重要作用;(3) 在重联区找到匹配的磁零点对,并计算出零点连线的长度,确定了所产生的磁场的拓扑分形面;(4) 发现在零点连线附近存在低杂波频率的电磁振荡,这为磁重联过程中可能的电子加速、加热机制提供了观测基础.     

Nonlinear dependence of anomalous resistivity on the reconnecting electric field in the Earth’s magnetotail

Based upon the observational data of the fast magnetic reconnection in the nearly collisionless magnetotail and the particle in cell (PIC)simulations on the electron acceleration in the reconnecting current sheet with guide magnetic field,we self consistently solved one dimension Vlasov equation with the magnetotail parameters and realistic mass ratio to explore the relationship between the anomalous resistivity and the induced electric field.As compared with theoretic formula for the current driven ion-acoustic and Buneman anomalous resistivity,the anomalous resistivity may result from the ion acoustic instability for small reconnecting electric field and the Buneman instability for large reconnecting electric field.The discrepancy between the theoretic results and numerical simulations may be caused by the high frequency instability that results from the deviation of electron distribution from Maxwellian one.These results are consistent with the early experimental results and favorable for the fast reconnection to take place.     

Energetic electrons associated with magnetic reconnection in the sheath of interplanetary coronal mass ejection

Magnetic reconnection is an important universal plasma dissipation process that converts magnetic energy into plasma thermal and kinetic energy,and simultaneously changes the magnetic field topology.In this paper,we report the first observation of energetic electrons associated with asymmetric reconnection in the sheath of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection.The magnetic field shear angle was about 151°,implying guide-field reconnection.The width of the exhaust was about 8×104 km.The reconnection rate was estimated as 0.044-0.08,which is consistent with fast reconnection theory and previous observations.We observed flux enhancements of energetic electrons with energy up to 400 keV in this reconnection exhaust.The region where ener- getic electron fluxes were enhanced is located at one pair of separatrices in the higher density hemisphere.We discuss these observation results,and compare with previous observations and recent kinetic simulations.