Open AccessIn situ evidence of resonant interactions between energetic electrons and whistler waves in magnetopause reconnection
Author(s) -
Li Zhi,
Lu QuanMing,
Wang RongSheng,
Gao XinLiang,
Chen HuaYue
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
earth and planetary physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2096-3955
DOI - 10.26464/epp2019048
Subject(s) - magnetosheath , whistler , physics , magnetopause , magnetic reconnection , field line , computational physics , geophysics , magnetosphere , pitch angle , electron , astrophysics , magnetic field , quantum mechanics
In this paper, we analyze one reconnection event observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission at the earth's magnetopause. In this event, the spacecraft crossed the reconnection current sheet from the magnetospheric side to the magnetosheath side, and whistler waves were observed on both the magnetospheric and magnetosheath sides. On the magnetospheric side, the whistler waves propagated quasi‐parallel to the magnetic field and toward the X‐line, while on the magnetosheath side they propagated almost anti‐parallel to the magnetic field and away from the X‐line. Associated with the enhancement of the whistler waves, we find that the fluxes of energetic electrons are concentrated around the pitch angle 90° when their energies are higher than the minimum energy that is necessary for the resonant interactions between the energetic electrons and whistler waves. This observation provides in situ observational evidence of resonant interactions between energetic electrons and whistler waves in the magnetic reconnection.