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Collisionless reconnection in Jupiter's magnetotail
Author(s) -
Zimbardo Gaetano
Publication year - 1991
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 - 10.1029/91gl00472
Subject(s) - physics , magnetic reconnection , jupiter (rocket family) , electron , plasma sheet , plasma , magnetic field , instability , diffusion , curvature , field line , current sheet , magnetosphere , computational physics , magnetohydrodynamics , mechanics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , geometry , mathematics , space shuttle
We present the first quantitative study of collisionless reconnection in Jupiter's magnetotail. Recently it has been shown that collisionless reconnection can occur in the Earth's magnetotail quasi‐neutral sheet when the electrons are subject to chaotic pitch angle diffusion. This happens when the magnetic field is very taillike, i.e., when the curvature parameter κ e = B z /B 0 (L z /ρ e0 ) 1/2 decreases to ≈ 1.6. For Jupiter's magnetotail, a self‐consistent axisymmetric equilibrium model is used to compute the magnetic field and κ e , and it is found that the condition for electron chaotization is satisfied in a region large enough to allow the growth of a tearing instability. The favourite site for reconnection is situated at about 60 R J , and the growth time is estimated to be about 370 s, i.e., much shorter than the plasma transit time through the chaotization region. The inductive e.m.f. along a 20 R J X line is estimated to be of order 100kV – 1 MV, and should accelerate the ions dawnward and the electrons duskward.