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Magnetopause reconnection impact parameters from multiple spacecraft magnetic field measurements
Author(s) -
Wendel Deirdre E.,
Reiff Patricia H.
Publication year - 2009
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 - 10.1029/2009gl040228
Subject(s) - magnetopause , magnetic reconnection , physics , spacecraft , current sheet , field line , magnetometer , magnetic field , geophysics , field (mathematics) , computational physics , topology (electrical circuits) , magnetosphere , magnetohydrodynamics , astronomy , mathematics , quantum mechanics , combinatorics , pure mathematics
We present a novel technique that exploits multiple spacecraft data to determine the impact parameters of the most general form of magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause. The method consists of a superposed epoch of multiple spacecraft magnetometer measurements that yields the instantaneous magnetic spatial gradients near a magnetopause reconnection site. The gradients establish the instantaneous positions of the spacecraft relative to the reconnection site. The analysis is well suited to evaluating the spatial scales of singular field line reconnection, which is characterized by a two‐dimensional x‐type topology adjacent and perpendicular to a reconnecting singular field line. Application of the method to Cluster data known to lie in the vicinity of a northward IMF reconnection site establishes a field topology consistent with singular field line reconnection and a normal magnetic field component of 20 nT. The corresponding current structure consists of a 130 km sheet possibly embedding a thinner, bifurcated sheet.