On the Short-scale Spatial Variability of Electron Inflows in Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath Observed by MMS

P. S. Pyakurel; T. D. Phan; J. F. Drake; M. A. Shay; M. Oieroset; C. C. Haggerty; J. Stawarz; J. L. Burch; R. E. Ergun; D. J. Gershman; B. L. Giles; R. B. Torbert; R. J. Strangeway; C. T. Russell

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acb6f1

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On the Short-scale Spatial Variability of Electron Inflows in Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath Observed by MMS

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On the Short-scale Spatial Variability of Electron Inflows in Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath Observed by MMS

P. S. Pyakurel, T. D. Phan, J. F. Drake, M. A. Shay, M. Oieroset, C. C. Haggerty, J. Stawarz, J. L. Burch, R. E. Ergun, D. J. Gershman, …

The Astrophysical journal, Vol.948(1), p.20

05/01/2023

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acb6f1

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Abstract

We investigate the detailed properties of electron inflow in an electron-only reconnection event observed by the four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft in the Earth's turbulent magnetosheath downstream of the quasi-parallel bow shock. The lack of ion coupling was attributed to the small-scale sizes of the current sheets, and the observed bidirectional super-Alfvenic electron jets indicate that the MMS spacecraft crossed the reconnecting current sheet on both sides of an active X-line. Remarkably, the MMS spacecraft observed the presence of large asymmetries in the two electron inflows, with the inflows (normal to the current sheet) on the two sides of the reconnecting current layer differing by as much as a factor of four. Furthermore, even though the four MMS spacecraft were separated by less than seven electron skin depths, the degree of inflow asymmetry was significantly different at the different spacecraft. The asymmetry in the inflow speeds was larger with increasing distances downstream from the reconnection site, and the asymmetry was opposite on the two sides of the X-line. We compare the MMS observations with a 2D kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation and find that the asymmetry in the inflow speeds stems from in-plane currents generated via the combination of reconnection-mediated inflows and parallel flows along the magnetic separatrices in the presence of a large guide field.

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Title: Subtitle: On the Short-scale Spatial Variability of Electron Inflows in Electron-only Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath Observed by MMS
Creators: P. S. Pyakurel - University of California, Berkeley
T. D. Phan - University of California, Berkeley
J. F. Drake - University of Maryland, College Park
M. A. Shay - University of Delaware
M. Oieroset - Univ Calif Berkeley, Space Sci Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
C. C. Haggerty - University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
J. Stawarz - Northumbria University
J. L. Burch - Southwest Research Institute
R. E. Ergun - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
D. J. Gershman - Goddard Space Flight Center
B. L. Giles - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
R. B. Torbert - University of New Hampshire
R. J. Strangeway - University of California, Los Angeles
C. T. Russell - University of New Hampshire
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: The Astrophysical journal, Vol.948(1), p.20
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acb6f1
ISSN: 0004-637X
eISSN: 1538-4357
Publisher: IOP Publishing Ltd
Number of pages: 12
Grant note: 80NSSC21K1481; 80NSSC20K1781; 80NSSC22K0352; 80NSSC20K1813; NNG04EB99C / NASA; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) AGS-2024198; PHY2109083 / NSF; National Science Foundation (NSF) DE-AC02-05CH11231 / U.S. DOE office of Science User Facility; United States Department of Energy (DOE)
Language: English
Date published: 05/01/2023
Academic Unit: Physics and Astronomy
Record Identifier: 9985224321702771

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