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Ohm's Law, the Reconnection Rate, and Energy Conversion in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
Phan, Tai; Cassak, Paul A.; Hoshino, Masahiro +12 more
Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous plasma process that transforms magnetic energy into particle energy during eruptive events throughout the universe. Reconnection not only converts energy during solar flares and geomagnetic substorms that drive space weather near Earth, but it may also play critical roles in the high energy emissions from the …
Jets Downstream of Collisionless Shocks: Recent Discoveries and Challenges
Raptis, Savvas; Blanco-Cano, Xóchitl; Karlsson, Tomas +19 more
Plasma flows with enhanced dynamic pressure, known as magnetosheath jets, are often found downstream of collisionless shocks. As they propagate through the magnetosheath, they interact with the surrounding plasma, shaping its properties, and potentially becoming geoeffective upon reaching the magnetopause. In recent years (since 2016), new researc…
The Role of Kinetic Instabilities and Waves in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection
Khotyaintsev, Yu. V.; Graham, D. B.; Steinvall, K. +13 more
Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic field energy into particle energy by breaking and reconnecting magnetic field lines. Magnetic reconnection is a kinetic process that generates a wide variety of kinetic waves via wave-particle interactions. Kinetic waves have been proposed to play an important role in magnetic reconnection in collisionless p…
From Foreshock 30-Second Waves to Magnetospheric Pc3 Waves
Kajdič, Primož; Pfau-Kempf, Yann; Turc, Lucile +7 more
Ultra-low frequency waves, with periods between 1-1000 s, are ubiquitous in the near-Earth plasma environment and play an important role in magnetospheric dynamics and in the transfer of electromagnetic energy from the solar wind to the magnetosphere. A class of those waves, often referred to as Pc3 waves when they are recorded from the ground, wi…
Magnetic Reconnection at Planetary Bodies and Astrospheres
Stawarz, Julia E.; Phan, Tai D.; Harada, Yuki +11 more
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental mechanism for the transport of mass and energy in planetary magnetospheres and astrospheres. While the process of reconnection is itself ubiquitous across a multitude of systems, the techniques used for its analysis can vary across scientific disciplines. Here we frame the latest understanding of reconnection…
Global-Scale Processes and Effects of Magnetic Reconnection on the Geospace Environment
Eastwood, J. P.; Lavraud, B.; Nakamura, R. +14 more
Recent multi-point measurements, in particular from the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft, have advanced the understanding of micro-scale aspects of magnetic reconnection. In addition, the MMS mission, as part of the Heliospheric System Observatory, combined with recent advances in global magnetospheric modeling, have furthered the unders…
The Interplay Between Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection and Turbulence
Hasegawa, H.; Khotyaintsev, Yu. V.; Graham, D. B. +13 more
Alongside magnetic reconnection, turbulence is another fundamental nonlinear plasma phenomenon that plays a key role in energy transport and conversion in space and astrophysical plasmas. From a numerical, theoretical, and observational point of view there is a long history of exploring the interplay between these two phenomena in space plasma env…
Heavy Molecular and Metallic Ions in the Magnetosphere
Yamauchi, M.; Wurz, P.; Dandouras, I. +11 more
Observations and present knowledge of heavy ions with mass ≥ 27 in the magnetosphere are reviewed. There are four ultimate sources of these heavy ions: the solar wind (mainly high charge-state atomic ions), the ionosphere (mainly molecular ions), the atmospheric metal layers that originate ultimately from ablation of meteoroids and possibly space …
HelioSwarm: A Multipoint, Multiscale Mission to Characterize Turbulence
Verscharen, Daniel; Retinò, Alessandro; Alexandrova, Olga +47 more
HelioSwarm (HS) is a NASA Medium-Class Explorer mission of the Heliophysics Division designed to explore the dynamic three-dimensional mechanisms controlling the physics of plasma turbulence, a ubiquitous process occurring in the heliosphere and in plasmas throughout the universe. This will be accomplished by making simultaneous measurements at ni…
Particle Acceleration by Magnetic Reconnection in Geospace
Khotyaintsev, Yuri; Drake, James F.; Oka, Mitsuo +7 more
Particles are accelerated to very high, non-thermal energies during explosive energy-release phenomena in space, solar, and astrophysical plasma environments. While it has been established that magnetic reconnection plays an important role in the dynamics of Earth's magnetosphere, it remains unclear how magnetic reconnection can further explain pa…