Premium
Structure and evolution of flux transfer events near dayside magnetic reconnection dissipation region: MMS observations
Author(s) -
Dong X.C.,
Dunlop M. W.,
Trattner K. J.,
Phan T. D.,
Fu H.S.,
Cao J.B.,
Russell C. T.,
Giles B. L.,
Torbert R. B.,
Le Guan,
Burch J. L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl073411
Subject(s) - magnetic reconnection , physics , magnetopause , flux (metallurgy) , magnetic flux , astrophysics , magnetic field , geophysics , magnetosphere , materials science , quantum mechanics , metallurgy
We investigate a series of three small‐scale flux transfer events (FTEs) associated with reconnected flux ropes, recently generated by a nearby, dayside magnetic reconnection line. The data are observed by the Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft near noon local time. We find that the associated FTEs are created by secondary magnetic reconnection and have different magnetic field topologies, which is a similar condition to that expected in the multiple X‐line magnetic reconnection (MR) model. The calculated results show that the sizes of the FTEs become larger with the time elapsed and the MR reconnection jets at the FTEs are all located on the trailing and outer edges. The above features indicate that these FTEs are still in the evolutionary stage after they are ejected from the reconnection region. Our observations suggest that mesoscale or even typical size FTEs can be created from secondary MR, initially, and subsequently can evolve to a typical size in the process of spreading.