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THEMIS multispacecraft observations of a reconnecting magnetosheath current sheet with symmetric boundary conditions and a large guide field
Author(s) -
Øieroset M.,
Phan T. D.,
Shay M. A.,
Haggerty C. C.,
Fujimoto M.,
Angelopoulos V.,
Eastwood J. P.,
Mozer F. S.
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 - 10.1002/2017gl074196
Subject(s) - outflow , magnetosheath , physics , current sheet , astrophysics , plasma sheet , magnetopause , field (mathematics) , line (geometry) , current (fluid) , field line , geophysics , plasma , magnetohydrodynamics , solar wind , meteorology , geometry , magnetosphere , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , thermodynamics
We report three spacecraft observations of a reconnecting magnetosheath current sheet with a guide field of unity, with THEMIS D (THD) and THEMIS E (THE)/THEMIS A (THA) observing oppositely directed reconnection exhausts, indicating the presence of an X line between the spacecraft. The near‐constant convective speed of the magnetosheath current sheet allowed the direct translation of the observed time series into spatial profiles. THD observed asymmetries in the plasma density and temperature profiles across the exhaust, characteristics of symmetric reconnection with a guide field. The exhausts at THE and THA, on the other hand, were not the expected mirror image of the THD exhaust in terms of the plasma and field profiles. They consisted of a main outflow at the center of the current sheet, flanked by oppositely directed flows at the two edges of the current sheet, suggesting the presence of a second X line, whose outflow wraps around the outflow from the first X line.