An Investigation of Perpendicular Gradients of Parallel Electric Field in Separatrix Regions in Anticipation of the Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Andrew Paul Sturner1,2, Robert Ergun1,2, David L Newman2, Giovanni Lapenta3, Roy B Torbert4, Per-Arne Lindqvist5 and James L Burch6, (1)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, (4)Univ New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States, (5)KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, (6)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States
Abstract:
Particle heating and acceleration observed throughout the Earth’s magnetosphere has been associated with magnetic reconnection events. Analytic studies have demonstrated that a curl of the parallel electric field is necessary for magnetic reconnection to occur. This measure, the curl of the parallel electric field, is a rigorous indicator of a change in magnetic field connectivity. The curl of the parallel electric field has been examined in numerical simulations. The initial results indicated that the separatrix may be as important, if not more important, for magnetic field reconnection than the electron diffusion region. The Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission, a constellation of four satellites flown in a tight tetrahedral formation, has made multi-point high quality 3D electric field measurements in the Earth’s midnight and dusk sectors, allowing for the first direct measurements of the curl of the parallel electric field. We aim to present a preliminary survey of parallel electric fields as measured by MMS and discuss the implications on magnetic reconnection and future observations of magnetic reconnection.
