Journal
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
Volume 29, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
AIP Publishing
DOI: 10.1063/5.0071106
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Royal Society University Research Fellowship [URF\R1\201286, URF\R1\191547]
- UKRI/STFC [ST/S000364/1]
- NASA [80NSSC20K1781]
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [2024211, AGS-2024198]
- CNES
- CNRS
- International Space Science Institute
- Directorate For Geosciences [2024211] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences [2024211] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study examines the influence of magnetic correlation length on turbulence-driven reconnection using observations from the MMS mission. The results show that electron-only reconnection is more prevalent for shorter magnetic correlation lengths, leading to faster electron jet speeds and thinner current sheets.
Turbulent plasmas generate a multitude of thin current structures that can be sites for magnetic reconnection. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission has recently enabled the detailed examination of such turbulent current structures in Earth's magnetosheath and revealed that a novel type of reconnection, known as electron-only reconnection, can occur. In electron-only reconnection, ions do not have enough space to couple to the newly reconnected magnetic fields, suppressing ion jet formation and resulting in thinner sub-proton-scale current structures with faster super-Alfvenic electron jets. In this study, MMS observations are used to examine how the magnetic correlation length ( ? (C)) of the turbulence, which characterizes the size of the large-scale magnetic structures and constrains the length of the current sheets formed, influences the nature of turbulence-driven reconnection. We systematically identify 256 reconnection events across 60 intervals of magnetosheath turbulence. Most events do not appear to have ion jets; however, 18 events are identified with ion jets that are at least partially coupled to the reconnected magnetic field. The current sheet thickness and electron jet speed have a weak anti-correlation, with faster electron jets at thinner current sheets. When ? (C) & LSIM; 20 ion inertial lengths, as is typical near the sub-solar magnetosheath, a tendency for thinner current sheets and potentially faster electron jets is present. The results are consistent with electron-only reconnection being more prevalent for turbulent plasmas with relatively short ? (C) and may be relevant to the nonlinear dynamics and energy dissipation in turbulent plasmas.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available