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Intermittent energy dissipation by turbulent reconnection
Eastwood, J. P.; André, M.; Vaivads, A. +5 more
Magnetic reconnection—the process responsible for many explosive phenomena in both nature and laboratory—is efficient at dissipating magnetic energy into particle energy. To date, exactly how this dissipation happens remains unclear, owing to the scarcity of multipoint measurements of the "diffusion region" at the sub-ion scale. Here we report suc…
Electron holes in phase space: What they are and why they matter
Hutchinson, I. H.
This is a tutorial and selective review explaining the fundamental concepts and some currently open questions concerning the plasma phenomenon of the electron hole. The widespread occurrence of electron holes in numerical simulations, space-craft observations, and laboratory experiments is illustrated. The elementary underlying theory is developed…
The interaction of ultra-low-frequency pc3-5 waves with charged particles in Earth's magnetosphere
Zong, Qiugang; Rankin, Robert; Zhou, Xuzhi
One of the most important issues in space physics is to identify the dominant processes that transfer energy from the solar wind to energetic particle populations in Earth's inner magnetosphere. Ultra-low-frequency (ULF) waves are an important consideration as they propagate electromagnetic energy over vast distances with little dissipation and in…
On the Existence of the Kolmogorov Inertial Range in the Terrestrial Magnetosheath Turbulence
Sahraoui, F.; Deng, X. H.; Huang, S. Y. +2 more
In the solar wind, power spectral density (PSD) of the magnetic field fluctuations generally follow the so-called Kolmogorov spectrum f -5/3 in the inertial range, where the dynamics is thought to be dominated by nonlinear interactions between counter-propagating incompressible Alfvén wave parquets. These features are thought to be ubiq…
North-South Asymmetries in Earth's Magnetic Field. Effects on High-Latitude Geospace
Reistad, J. P.; Laundal, K. M.; Milan, S. E. +5 more
The solar-wind magnetosphere interaction primarily occurs at altitudes where the dipole component of Earth's magnetic field is dominating. The disturbances that are created in this interaction propagate along magnetic field lines and interact with the ionosphere-thermosphere system. At ionospheric altitudes, the Earth's field deviates significantl…
MMS Observation of Magnetic Reconnection in the Turbulent Magnetosheath
Lavraud, B.; Vaivads, A.; Le Contel, O. +30 more
In this paper we use the full armament of the MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) spacecraft to study magnetic reconnection in the turbulent magnetosheath downstream of a quasi-parallel bow shock. Contrarily to the magnetopause and magnetotail cases, only a few observations of reconnection in the magnetosheath have been reported. The case study in thi…
Explaining the rolling-pin distribution of suprathermal electrons behind dipolarization fronts
Cao, J. B.; Xu, Y.; Fu, H. S. +2 more
The rolling-pin distribution of suprathermal electrons (40-200 keV), showing electron pitch angles primarily at 0°, 90°, and 180°, has recently been reported behind dipolarization fronts (DFs) both in observations and simulations. The formation of such type of distribution, however, has been unclear so far. In this study, we present an observation…
Coherent Structures at Ion Scales in Fast Solar Wind: Cluster Observations
Maksimovic, M.; Alexandrova, O.; Lion, S. +5 more
We investigate the nature of magnetic turbulent fluctuations, around ion characteristic scales, in a fast solar wind stream, by using Cluster data. Contrarily to slow solar wind, where both Alfvénic (δ {b}\perp \gg δ {b}\parallel ) and compressive (δ {b}\parallel \gg δ {b}\perp ) coherent structures are …
Dual Maxwellian-Kappa modeling of the solar wind electrons: new clues on the temperature of Kappa populations
Fichtner, H.; Pierrard, V.; Lazar, M. +2 more
Context. Recent studies on Kappa distribution functions invoked in space plasma applications have emphasized two alternative approaches that may assume the temperature parameter either dependent or independent of the power-index κ. Each of them can obtain justification in different scenarios involving Kappa-distributed plasmas, but direct evidence…
Rapid precipitation of radiation belt electrons induced by EMIC rising tone emissions localized in longitude inside and outside the plasmapause
Omura, Yoshiharu; Kubota, Yuko
By performing test particle simulations of relativistic electrons scattered by electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) rising tone emissions, we find a nonlinear scattering process named SLPA (Scattering at Low Pitch Angle) totally different from the nonlinear wave trapping. The nonlinear wave trapping, occurring for high pitch angles away from the l…