Premium
A Cluster measurement of fast magnetic reconnection in the magnetotail
Author(s) -
Xiao C. J.,
Pu Z. Y.,
Wang X. G.,
Ma Z. W.,
Fu S. Y.,
Phan T. D.,
Zong Q. G.,
Liu Z. X.,
Dunlop M. W.,
Glassmeier K.H.,
Balogh A.,
Reme H.,
Dandouras I.,
Escoubet C. P.
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1029/2006gl028006
Subject(s) - magnetic reconnection , physics , diffusion , flux (metallurgy) , solar flare , astrophysics , plasma , spacecraft , computational physics , range (aeronautics) , substorm , magnetosphere , astronomy , aerospace engineering , nuclear physics , materials science , engineering , metallurgy , thermodynamics
Fast reconnection is crucial to magnetospheric substorms, solar and stellar flares and fusion plasmas. Ultimate confirmation of fast reconnection must be achieved by multi‐spacecraft detections of the reconnection rate itself and associated dimensions of the diffusion region. Here we report a multi‐spacecraft measurement of fast reconnection rate γ rec ∼ V in ≈ (0.07–0.15) V A based on directly measurements of the plasma flow into the diffusion region, where V in is the speed of reconnecting flux and V A the characteristic Alfvén speed. It falls in the range of ∼(0.03–0.2) V A predicted in steady state reconnection simulation. The characteristic sizes for the diffusion region of the width L z ∼ 0.9 d i (= 460 km) and the length L x ∼ (3.3–5.1) d i (= 1680–2597 km) are measured as well. The length of the diffusion region L x is determined for the first time based on the in situ observations. Furthermore, other features detected during the event also match the previous observation and simulation results.