Journal article
Exploring Magnetic Reconnection in the Collisional Ionosphere of Mars With MAVEN
Geophysical research letters, Vol.52(22), e2025GL118950
11/28/2025
DOI: 10.1029/2025GL118950
Abstract
Magnetic reconnection in collisional plasmas has been widely studied in solar and laboratory plasma disciplines, but in situ measurements in space plasmas have rarely been utilized to explore this reconnection regime. Here we study collisional effects on magnetic reconnection in the Martian ionosphere by analyzing in situ data obtained by the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. A case study and statistical results demonstrate that current sheets are commonly observed in both collisionless and collisional regions in the Martian ionosphere. Meanwhile, reconnection ion jets become hardly detectable in collisional current sheets, suggesting suppression of reconnection outflows by ion‐neutral friction effects. MAVEN observations allow us to access multiple regimes of magnetic reconnection, thereby providing valuable opportunities for cross‐disciplinary studies of collisional reconnection.
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process that can cause explosive events like solar flares in solar, space, astrophysical, and laboratory plasmas. Scientists have used spacecraft to study this process in space, but these studies have mostly looked at places where particles rarely collide with each other. In this study, however, we examined collisional reconnection by analyzing data collected by NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft in the Martian ionosphere, where particles collide with each other more frequently because of the Martian atmosphere. We found that streaming flows of ions from reconnection, or “reconnection ion jets,” are slowed down in the collisional region of the Martian ionosphere, as expected from theory. Essentially, the Martian ionosphere is a unique natural laboratory accessible to spacecraft that allows us to study the transition of magnetic reconnection from collisionless to collisional plasmas.
We investigate magnetic reconnection events observed at relatively low altitudes in the Martian ionosphere We rarely find detectable reconnection ion jets within collisional current sheets possibly due to ion‐neutral friction effects The Martian ionosphere provides an accessible natural laboratory of magnetic reconnection in marginally collisional plasmas
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Exploring Magnetic Reconnection in the Collisional Ionosphere of Mars With MAVEN
- Creators
- Y. Harada - Nagoya UniversityT. E. Cravens - University of KansasD. A. Brain - University of Colorado BoulderJ. S. Halekas - University of IowaJ. G. Luhmann - University of California, BerkeleyC. M. Fowler - West Virginia UniversityK. G. Hanley - University of California, BerkeleyJ. P. McFadden - University of California, Berkeley
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Geophysical research letters, Vol.52(22), e2025GL118950
- DOI
- 10.1029/2025GL118950
- ISSN
- 0094-8276
- eISSN
- 1944-8007
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Grant note
- Nagoya University Research FundNational Aeronautics and Space Administration: MAVEN Contract Japan Society for the Promotion of Science: 25K00024, 25H00684, 25K01053, 22H01285
YH acknowledges support through JSPS KAKENHI Grant (25K00024, 25H00684, 25K01053, 22H01285). The authors acknowledge support from the MAVEN contract. This work is partially supported by Nagoya University Research Fund.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/28/2025
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9985033875602771
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