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Quadrupolar pattern of the asymmetric guide‐field reconnection
Author(s) -
Peng F. Z.,
Fu H. S.,
Cao J. B.,
Graham D. B.,
Chen Z. Z.,
Cao D.,
Xu Y.,
Huang S. Y.,
Wang T. Y.,
Khotyaintsev Y. V.,
Andre M.,
Russell C. T.,
Giles B.,
Lindqvist P.A.,
Torbert R. B.,
Ergun R. E.,
Burch J. L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2016ja023666
Subject(s) - magnetic reconnection , physics , magnetopause , current sheet , asymmetry , magnetic field , outflow , heliospheric current sheet , hall effect , current (fluid) , field (mathematics) , plane (geometry) , astrophysics , magnetohydrodynamics , computational physics , condensed matter physics , interplanetary magnetic field , solar wind , geometry , quantum mechanics , meteorology , thermodynamics , mathematics , pure mathematics
With high‐resolution data of the recently launched Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, we report a magnetic reconnection event at the dayside magnetopause. This reconnection event, having a density asymmetry N high / N low ≈ 2 on the two sides of the reconnecting current sheet and a guide field B g ≈ 0.4 B 0 in the “out‐of‐plane” direction, exhibit all the two‐fluid features: Alfvenic plasma jets in the outflow region, bipolar Hall electric fields toward the current sheet center, quadrupolar Hall magnetic fields in the “out‐of‐plane” direction, and the corresponding Hall currents. Obviously, the density asymmetry N high / N low ≈ 2 and the guide field B g ≈ 0.4 B 0 are not sufficient to dismiss the quadrupolar pattern of Hall reconnection. This is different from previous simulations, where the bipolar pattern of Hall reconnection was suggested.